Entrance

Haiku of anticipation

Approaching the Mount

named for olives, Jesus sends

two of them ahead.

Bethpage, Bethany?

Whatever; the next village.

They found the donkey.

They explain: The Lord

needs it, he will send it back

when he is finished.

Jesus rode to town.

(What does he think he’s doing?

A royal entrance?)

The people spread cloaks,

branches on the road ahead

to welcome their king.

Hosanna! Blessed

is he who comes in God’s name!

Quite a sensation.

Hosanna, O son

of David! Expectations

are heightened, somewhat.

Came to the temple.

Jesus entered, looked about.

Being late, he left.

© Ken Rookes 2024

The things that make for peace

""He shall judge between the nations and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." That is our Palm Sunday hope, and it is our only hope. That is what the palms and the shouting are all about. That is what all our singing and worshiping and preaching and praying are all about if they are about anything that matters. The hope that finally by the grace of God the impossible will happen. The hope that Pilate will take him by one hand and Caiaphas by the other, and the Roman soldiers will throw down their spears and the Sanhedrin will bow their heads. The hope that by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the love of Christ, who is Lord of the impossible, the leaders of the enemy nations will draw back, while there is still time for drawing back, from a vision too terrible to name. The hope that you and I also, each in our own puny but crucial way, will work and witness and pray for the things that make for peace, true peace, both in our own lives and in the life of this land."
excerpt from a sermon by Frederick Buechner, 'The things that make for peace'.

The greatest irony ....

"Hailing Jesus as Messiah was dangerous and open to misunderstanding. The passion is about one who was executed as ‘king of the Jews’, made to wear a crown of thorns, mocked as a king, set between other revolutionaries and made subject of barter with Barabbas. Irony is at work. John is fond of having people state the truth without knowing it. Here they hail Jesus as Messiah, probably for all the wrong reasons, just as the crowds did whom Jesus fed in the desert in 6:14-15. The ears of faith know however that in a different sense what they say is true.

It is all part of the greatest irony of all: the true king, the true Messiah, the great human being and Son of God, is a collapsed figure on a cross. Compassion and lowliness confront human images of power and success. The ‘failure’ of Jesus is his success. His truth is faithfulness to love and compassion without bowing to compromise which would betray himself and others. Even though asses were not necessarily bottom of the range in public transport, the image of Jesus on the foal of an ass does depict lowliness."
William Loader
http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/

The compassionate way.

The Dalai ‘Lama once said “Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.”

If this is so, if compassion is part of the business of being human and essential for our survival, then we are failing badly when it comes to our treatment of asylum seekers in this country. We have, sadly, entered into a time in Australian society where our sense of our humanity, of what it is be a part of a society where compassion and human rights are valued and basic, is under threat.

And we live also in a time when the nature of the truth about our treatment of asylum seekers is twisted. It perhaps began with the ‘children overboard’ lie, and extends to this time when we are being sold the lie that putting men, women and children into indefinite detention in places like the Manus island detention centre is somehow a compassionate act because it is stopping the boats. The great deception is to disguise expediency and selfishness as compassion and to disguise ugly politics as the protection of Australian society. 

On Palm Sunday we celebrate a story in which traditionally a king or messiah would come into a city triumphant on a great steed, but Jesus chose to come into Jerusalem riding a donkey to reinforce that he was not that sort of king. And though Jesus had been preaching and teaching about peace, compassion and an alternative paradigm of life in which the first are last and the last first, on this day, everyone wanted a powerful, forceful king.

The palm Sunday message calls us to live out Jesus' alternative way of being; to live the compassionate way and to find way to welcome the stranger. On Palm Sunday I will be thinking of those who have sought asylum in this country, particularly those who are on Manus island or Nauru. I will ponder their journey, their sacrifice, their shattered hopes, and I will vow to work and pray for transformation in our politics and society that will bring a better, more compassionate way.

The Dalai Lama also said that “Compassion is the radicalism of our time.” As Christians we are called to shout 'hosanna' to this and to be just such a group of such radicals.

won't you fight for me?

I am reminded of the words of the people in the musical JC superstar, in which the crowd welcome Jesus into Jerusalem with the chant ...
Hey sanna Hosanna sanna sanna hey sanna hey sanna hosanna, 
hey Jc Jc, won’t won’t you fight for me, sanna hey sanna ho superstar. 
They expected, as we desire, a leader of power and force to save them from their repression. In our modern age this gospel lesson asks us if we are that much different. When we are feeling in danger from an enemy how many of us welcomed a George Bush of a John Howard who set themselves up as saviour figures and avenging angels of power? The message is no easier for us today to hear than it was for the people of Jerusalem. The power of Jesus and Jesus’ message is not of this world. It is the power of compassion, of healing and of grace. It is not a language that we yet understand but, it is a language we are called to seek to live as Christians even in our modern age. I believe that when Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he was weeping for all the generations and religions to come that would refuse to listen to the language of peace and healing.

Taming the Hosanna

We have tamed the word Hosanna more than a little in our churches also. 

It is a word of revolution. The word "Hosanna," like the words 

"Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani" is an Aramaic word--a reminder of our Jewish roots, 

our Jewish Jesus, our Jewish Messiah. 

But "Hosanna" is the prayer of Palm Sunday's triumphant (and triumphalist) Church, 

where "Eloi, Eloi" is the prayer of Jesus' rejection and despair. 

These are the old words of our story, words which are too freighted with meaning 

to be translated into any language, and so are left in Jesus' own tongue.  

We begin the liturgy today with Hosanna on our lips—our modern equivalent 

might be "Jesus saves!" except that does not sound very revolutionary.  

"Hosanna!" was a nationalist and revolutionary cry on the lips of an oppressed people.  

It was more like "Allah Akbar!" as shouted in the Israeli-occupied territories 

of Palestine today. It was inflammatory, not suitable for Sunday school.  

Roman occupation soldiers would have heard it as provocation, 

as a rock thrown by an Arab youth at Israeli occupation troops in the West Bank or Gaza.  

We sing it gladly as a triumphalist ditty, unaware of its political power. 

Perhaps the Church does not yet realize its own plight in the 21st century, 

or "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtahni" would be a more frequent prayer than once a year. 

We don't yet know the depth of our daily abandonment. 
Lucy Bregman

God's anti-empire

"When the crowds on this day so many years ago shouted Hosanna! to Jesus, they were certainly expecting great things politically, and perhaps militarily, from his arrival on the scene. They were buying into the notion that empire can and will offer them salvation of a certain type. They did not believe that Rome was capable of offering this salvation, since Rome was a nation that had many gods rather than the One. Only God’s anointed could rule God’s people with justice and righteousness. There are some who still await the coming of such a one.

The problem is that though they offer the right words, the hosannas that they sing invoke a salvation that is no solution to the world’s problems. A consistent witness of the Old Testament prophets was their condemnation of “empire” as a way of being God’s people in the world. Empire is the way of Egypt and its Pharoahs. Empire is the way of Babylon and Assyria. Empire is the way of Greece and the Seleucid Greek monarchs of Syria. Empire is Rome’s way of being in the world.

God’s people were established as a kind of anti-empire. They were formed in the Sinai wilderness around a covenant with a God whose desire was the restoration of a broken humanity. Israel was formed as an alternative to the pyramid class society of Egypt, with God dwelling among the people as sovereign, not an emperor or king. The people were seen as having equal standing, not with some occupying higher or lower status on the ladder. The power of empire to kill those who opposed it, supported by military might and religious belief was to give way to a power to attract all nations to the light of God, given in love to this special people. The hosannas of this day are misplaced when they expect a new Judean kingdom to supplant, but not replace the Roman Empire. Just as with the kingdom of Israel of old, the empire way would not work again.

The good news is that Jesus comes with a different set of expectations then we have, then the Judean crowd. Jesus comes not with a replacement empire, but to replace the claims and the authority of empire itself. If empire’s power lies in the threat of death to those who oppose it, then destroying the power of death trumps empire’s claim. Empire offers salvation to those lucky enough to be at the top of the pyramid. Love and forgiveness are for all humanity. Empires can and do fail. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Our problem is that our worldview is too small. Jesus has nothing but the restoration of all creation in his sights. We think of ourselves, our security in life, our personal vindication in death. Jesus thinks of others and their needs first, and finally the restoration of all things into right relationship with the Father."

http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-7/050320-4-e.html

speaking the truth to power

Palm Sunday commemorates the day an itinerant prophet spoke truth to power. Jesus of Nazareth arrived at the gates of Jerusalem in a parody of imperial pomp. But he was a nobody. Instead of a stallion, he rode up on a borrowed donkey. In place of an army, he had a bunch of lily-livered misfits throwing down their cloaks and palm branches as if he was a big shot.  Street theatre, if you like. And a week later he was dead. He was there to challenge the commonsense of the day. Armed with only an idea.

Jesus used to say things like this. If a child asks you for bread, will you give him a stone?Awkward things like that.

His followers called his idea The Way. Many of us are here today because the idea has stuck. We try to follow the Way of Peace and Love. Just another bunch of lily-livered misfits.

For generations, in communities all over the globe, Palm Sunday has been a day when people walk for peace and reconciliation. And not just Christians. People of every faith and of no faith at all come together as we have today in solidarity. To express our communal values and yearnings, the things that bind us rather than those that separate us. 

We belong to a prosperous country, a place where prosperity and good fortune have made us powerful. Yes, whether we feel it or not, we are exceptionally powerful as individuals and as a community. We have the power of safety. We're richer, more mobile, with more choices than most of our fellow citizens worldwide. Not because we're virtuous, but because we're lucky. But we don't come here to gloat. We're here to reflect. To hold ourselves to account. We didn't come here today to celebrate power or to hide in its privileged shadow. We're here to speak for the powerless. We're not here to praise the conventions of the day, but to examine them and expose them to the truth. We're not here to reinforce the status quo. We gather to dissent from it.

Tim Winton (see rest of speech in The Age here)

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/tim-wintons-palm-sunday-plea-start-the-soulsearching-australia-20150329-1ma5so.html 

God's encouragement

Since the story of the resurrection has been known it has been an encouragement for those who are experiencing suffering, whatever its cause. There are several places in the gospels which seem to indicate that Jesus knew that he would rise again after three days. Why then was he so distressed at this time? After all, it would soon be all over! If we believe that Jesus was truly human he could not have had this knowledge and scholars believe these passages were written with the benefit of hindsight.

It can be encouraging for people to read of the experiences of how others coped with adversity two and a half thousand years ago and how Jesus did two thousand years ago, but it is also encouraging to hear stories since then and in particular, in our time. Feelings associated with difficult times are similar today to those experienced by the Psalmist, by Isaiah and by Jesus. It is good to know God is with us in these experiences now.

We may speak of the encouragement we have received through experiences of God’s action in the lives of others. These people may be seen as special, not ordinary folk like us. We are often reluctant to tell of the encouragement we have received through the experience of God’s love in our own lives even though we know it will help others because we fear being ridiculed as Isaiah was. God still wakens our ears to listen, to be strengthened, to have the words to encourage and sustain the weary. God answers our desperate prayers with encouraging reassurances that all we will need for this day will be provided.

Rev Julianne Parker 

(for full sermon see sermons page)

i don't know who

I don't know who - or what - put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone - or Something - and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.

From that moment I have known what it means "not to look back," and "to take no thought for the morrow."

Led by the Ariadne's thread of my answer through the labyrinth of life, I came to a time and place where I realized that the Way leads to a triumph which is a catastrophe, and to a catastrophe which is a triumph, that the price for committing one's life would be reproach, and that the only elevation possible to man lies in the depths of humilation. After that, the word “courage” lost its meaning, since nothing could be taken from me.

As I continued along the Way, I learned, step by step, word by word, that behind every saying in the gospels, stands one man and one man's experience. Also behind the prayer that the cup might pass from him and his promise to drink it. Also behind each of the words from the cross.

-Dag Hammarskjold

how to make a palm cross

http://www.lucylearns.com/palm-sunday-crafts.html

Palm Sunday coloring

http://www.biblekids.eu/new_testament/palm_sunday/palm_sunday_html/palm_sunday_28.html

a painful smile

Shusako Endo

The Pesach (Passover) was at hand. The people preparing for the festival were looking back on their long history, rueful over the anguished adversity of their ancient wandering migrations, and they prayed with fervor that God would come again to restore prosperity to his land now trampled underfoot by the Gentiles. Jesus, of course, knew the spirit of the feast. On this particular day, shortly before the festival itself began, with full knowledge he dared to plunge into that whirlpool of popular misunderstanding. Descending from the Mount of Olives and through the cheers from the crowd, he certainly knew that he was soon going to disappoint these people, and that the people in their frustration would then turn against him. . . . Jesus, coming down the mountain and entering the city, wore a painful smile.

celebrating nonetheless

"Jesus' awareness of his impending death permeates his actions and can be compared, i believe, to the knowledge held today by the terminally ill ... Jesus on Palm Sunday may be likened to the cancer patient who celebrates and anniversary - fully aware of the "lastness" of it all, yet celebrating nonetheless."
Lucy Bregman

a celebration of misunderstanding

I write this on a day given to remembering the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem. This year the day seems empty and abstract. The events of the week are too overpowering. The knowledge that Christ's entry led directly to his Crucifixion looms too [grimly] ahead. This seems the strangest holiday of the year, a celebration of misunderstanding. In this world, the [dominion] has not yet come, though our hearts long for it and our lives incline toward it.
John Leax

Palm Sunday coloring

http://arewethereyet-davisfarmmom.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/palm-sunday.html

Christ's entry into Jerusalem

wonderful watercolour by norman Adams
http://www.methodist.org.uk/static/artcollection/image1.htm

save us from self-interest

"Jesus declines to ask God to save him, he rather requests the Father to glorify his name. At face value it would seem that the Jerusalem fan parade is glorifying God’s name but they are not really. They are simply demanding their own liberation. “Save us now!“

The paradox of Jesus’ life is that the glorification of God’s name is found  in the ignonimity and humiliation of the accursed one who is nailed up on a tree. It is from there that the salvation called for in the Hosanna arises.  However, this salvation is now completely redefined by the poured out life on the cross.

Which brings me to that Jerusalem flash mob and their, “God help us! God save us!”

Isn’t that the most primal prayer ever prayed?"

http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/hosanna-save-us-from-self-interest-palm-sunday-b/