March 24, 2024
Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion Year B
Epiphany, Winnipeg
Mark 11:1-11; 15:1-47
On the first Sunday in Lent we looked back and we looked ahead, and I ended the sermon by pondering what might happen during the next forty days.
That was thirty five days ago. So what happened in your life in the last thirty-five days, since that First Sunday in Lent?
What gave you great joy?
Who did you see who made you smile or who made your heart leap with delight or who made you laugh, or who listened and cared? Maybe you see them every day, or maybe you just ran into them once.
Who did you see who just made your day? Maybe it was kids and those who were kids a while ago or long long ago, as we walked around the church waving some palms and singing.
In the past thirty five days, what brought you joy? What did you celebrate? What brought you healing?
And what made the world better?
Or did you find it hard to see such things?
Who did you see who just made you mad, and you wished they’d go away, or worse, or you just wished you could forget about them? Maybe it was someone you see every day, and you never feel that way about them except for now and then, because, you know, that happens? Maybe it was the driver who still hasn’t learned to zipper merge. Maybe it was someone whose initials are Justin Trudeau or Pierre Poilievre…maybe it was you and your own quirks and troubles that just keep sticking around.
What broke you heart? What scared you? What stretched the world to breaking point what and made it look a little closer to coming apart?
What happened in the last thirty five days since February 18th, that first Sunday in Lent?
Now scrunch all those days together into just a minute or two or a second or two, because the time flies by so quickly, and it’s true, isn’t it, that sometimes it seems like Everything Everywhere happens All At Once: The good, the bad, the heartbreaking and the healing. And sometimes in a life like this you and I might find that it all happens too quickly, and events spin out of control, and it’s just kind of bewildering and frightening.
It’s what happens in the story of Jesus’ last days this week. Everything everywhere happens all at once, it seems. We did it in half an hour this morning: We followed Jesus into the city in a great big party, and then in a moment the mood switched and we watched and listened while he was arrested and taken away and executed. All so quickly, so out of control.
We heard this in that reading from Phillipians today: “Although Jesus was in the form of God, he did not count being equal to God as something to use for his own gain. Instead, he emptied himself of all that and took the form of a slave.” Jesus did not count equality with God as something that meant he could avoid our life, or skip the parade, or miss our celebrations. As the events moved on, Jesus did not count equality with God as something he could play to his own advantage, sort of a Get Out of Jail Free card that would keep him free from arrest and off the cross and out of that tomb. Jesus did not count equality with God as something that would keep him from lying lifeless while a few women who stayed close lingered and kept vigil.
It all happens so quickly, and Jesus is right there in the everywhere all at once.
Today we begin our walk through Holy Week again. In a lot of ways it’s just another week – another week where everything seems to happen all at once. Maybe while your own life unfolds this week try every now and then to see one thing happening, and just pause everything else for a minute. Pay attention to a scene you see that echoes that crucifixion of Jesus, or that suffering or that loneliness or that sense that something is just not right here. Hold in prayer whoever you see there, whether it’s on the news or a small screen in your hand or right there in front of you in school or on the street. And see that Jesus is there too – he doesn’t play his God card to get away from the real suffering of real people in the world.
Then, every now and then, pay attention to a different kind of scene; one that looks like those women named Mary and Salome and a few others staying close to Jesus when it would be safer for them to slip quietly away. See the faithfulness of friends – your own or the ones you see around you or in the stories of the world. It’s beautiful to see. Or see Simon of Cyrene carrying Jesus’ cross, and remember and give thanks for the people who are maybe forced into someone else’s suffering and they help to carry the load. These are all somehow stories of grace and goodness that won’t be silenced. They happen everywhere all at once too, even if they’re harder to see sometimes.
And notice a celebration or a piece of joy or a sign of healing that you see or hear about or that you have in your own life. Let everything else happen and notice that one thing for a moment. Say a prayer for the ones who celebrate , and give thanks for the one who does not count equality with God as a reason not to join in a party or a parade. There are these signs of God’s goodness and grace that just keeps on moving while everything happens all at once.
Somewhere in the world right now there’s music and laughter and noise – just like we’ve seen right up here. In one place people are packed into the streets and there are guitars and a trumpet blasting out loud right at ear level. And there are palms all over the place. Somewhere else there’s a young girl sitting on her grandpa’s shoulders and she’s so glad to be able to see all the fuss and hear all the noise and wave her own palm with this crowd. There are women and babies and palms, there are some young kids waving palm crosses and at least one of them has a kind of “I’m not quite sure about all this” look in his eyes. And there’s a small gaggle of boys proudly bearing…their palms. A young woman dressed in such bright colours carries out the joyful but serious work of spreading flower petals on a road in Ecuador to make a lovely way for Jesus in this Palm Sunday procession. There are crowds and crowds and crowds… Palm Sunday scenes unfolding all over the world today as we and all the saints celebrate as Jesus enters Jerusalem…and as we and all the saints …celebrate...? Look on with confusion? Turn away? ...as Jesus leaves Jerusalem and is taken to a hillside to die.
And maybe stop for a minute now and then and remember those scenes. All those people, with all kinds of things going on in their lives, all at once. And they wave palms, and maybe in the other hand they wave crosses, and they remind us of the one who walks with us and ahead of us, maybe who follows along behind to make sure no one is dropped along the way. Some kids with palms and crosses tell us again of the one who goes ahead of us and who will turn our dying back into living. It’s good news that carries us. It’s good news that goes with us.