March 25, 2018, Palm Sunday: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard.  Amen.

Talk about March Madness!  And no, I am not talking about the fact that we have had 4 Nor’easters since the month began or that every single NCAA bracket is totally trashed by now.  You know, I heard once about a “psychology instructor who had just finished a lecture on mental health and had proceeded to give an oral quiz to the freshman class. Speaking specifically about what was then called manic depression, the instructor asked, “How would you diagnose a patient who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?”  A young man in the rear of the room raised his hand and answered, “A fan of college basketball?””

I am not an NCAA fan, but I am a Mets fan, so I do understand the insanity, truly I do.  But it is March Madness today not because of basketball – but because Jesus is on the march!  And folks, you can’t get more madness than the insanity of this crazy palm parade.

We begin this service with a palm parade of sorts – a festive, chaotic craziness that can drive crazy those who want everything to be exactly so, or worship to be peaceful and uniform.  Yes, it is orchestrated – a bit too much so I would admit – but the very fact that we are taken out of our element, starting at the parish hall, going outside in front of all those people in cars who might see us, waving palm branches and singing – and then as one group heading to sit down.  Perhaps someone will be in our favorite pew!  Perhaps the whole darn thing meant we were standing too long, or all jumbled up, or not singing the hosannas all at the same time.  Even the service order is all different – the gospel at the beginning, the anthem before the Peace, what the heck!

Ahh, but that is the point!  That is the point of it all, isn’t it.  Because to enter into this sacred time of Holy Week isn’t to enter into an orderly, peaceful time.  No – it is to step into the very days in which we will be jolted – emotionally, spiritually, and even physically.  It is a liturgical defibrillator that is meant to shock the heart – not to kill us – but to allow us to live.  And it all begins here – in this moment – in this march of the palms.

And when we think about all that is going on in our world, in our country, in our streets, we will come to see that it is not only in the liturgy of Holy Week that our hearts are shocked – but in the news that confronts us each and every day. Children are killed in schools.  Worshipers are killed in churches.  Women, the largest victims of gun violence, are killed every single day.  Black men are killed, the latest unarmed in his own backyard.  LGBT people are murdered and beaten.  People of different faiths kill one another.  We are killing the earth and the creatures who live alongside us.  It all comes as daily jolts to our heart.

And that is not the only news that shocks our collective systems.  No, sadly there is more – those who value guns over people, who are described as war hawks, who turn their backs on science to stare only at the idol of profit, who legislate from a place of immoral indifference to the suffering poor – they infest our halls of government – they are the pillars of our empire.  But make no mistake about it…the empire of our day is no different than the one that existed at the time of the first palm procession.  And the one thing both of them fear most – is exactly what happened then…and is happening now. 

Then, the Roman armies were descending on Jerusalem from the west, on horses and chariots – armed to the hilt, while Jesus was entering from the east on a donkey into the masses of the suffering and oppressed.  One might rightly believe that the Romans had nothing to fear, and yet they understood the powerful message of Passover that was being celebrated in this city.  That is why the reinforcements had been sent – Passover was not just any story – but THE story up to that time of the people breaking free from the bondage of oppression. And it is just that type of story – that type of faith – that will frighten the most well armed, and strongest of kingdoms. 

But this – this added surprise of one who preached a different future – this Jesus – his followers – they were too filled with hope for what might be rather than despair at their present circumstances – they were dangerous.  For the very food of the oppressor is the despair that nothing can be done, that darkness will always be, that they are powerless in the face of all that is. 

That is what made that palm procession so very frightening to the empire of the day – it was the beginning of something that would have no end.  And that is also what makes yesterday’s March for Our Lives, and for that matter – all the marches and protests in the past several years – so very frightening to those in power who wittingly or unwittingly have become a soldier in the armies of today’s dark forces of greed, bigotry, and hate.  Why?

Because these voices are not whispering meekly out of despair either, but are shouting boldly out of deep and abiding hope. 

They are not walking single file toward the slaughterhouse of indifference, but marching en mass with righteous indignation.

And perhaps, most frightening to them of all, they are standing arm and arm, across boundaries kingdoms always use to divide and conquer.  These marches of the resistance include the young and the old, the weak and the strong, the women and the men, the gay and the straight, the black and the white, the rich and the poor, the people of faith and those who profess none, and yes – even the republican and the democrat.

 These are frightening times indeed for our own empire, because this continued onslaught of the resistance is cutting deeply into the veil of ignorance and deceit that has sought to hide what is really happening from those who to whom it is being done.  It is making the transparent chains of oppression visible, and the forgers of the chains pushed out of the shadows and into the glaring light of scrutiny and truth telling.  For them – it is March Madness – but for the rest of us – it is the beginning of a new age.

But make no mistake about this too – as we are only at the beginning of Holy Week, so too are these marches only the beginning – and the response of empire now, as then, will be swift and resounding.  That is why Holy Week is what we most need to hold in our hearts at this moment – because in our world today, we have been continually living in the tension of the hope of the Palm Sunday march, Maundy Thursday’s commandment to love, and Good Friday’s horror at the evil we witness in the crosses that abound around us.  And yet, we do this always with the knowledge of what is to come.

Perhaps that is why in all times of our church year, we never lose sight of the cross – or the empty tomb – because we know that to stand in darkness without the knowledge of light will kill us of hope.  And to stand in light without the knowledge of darkness will blind us to suffering.   

Yesterday we marched with signs.

Today we march with palms. 

The week ahead will, if we let it, change us.

The week ahead will, if we embody it, change the world.

Amen.

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