Sermon for Palm Sunday 2020
The Liturgy of the Palms
The Liturgy of the Word
Today marks the entrance into the week we call Holy. We started today with the remarkable entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on a colt. Jesus enters as a king – but with a twist – instead of riding in on a war horse with his army he comes in on a colt – or other versions say a donkey. He comes in on a creature that is not fit for a worldly king and instead of an army he is accompanied by a rag tag group of disciples. Disciples who were fisherfolk, tax collectors, those who were formally so sick they had to be shunned, and women. As he enters the crowds gather and cover his path with their cloaks and with branches, and shout “Hosanna to the Son of David.” A line filled with foreshadowing comes near the end of our reading. It says that when Jesus entered into Jerusalem that they whole city was in turmoil. A turmoil that will ultimately lead to his death.
As we celebrate our yearly remembrance of Jesus’ triumphal entry our world is not normal. Because of the stay at home orders we did not gather in person in the garden. We did not have the blessing of the palms and the procession into the church. We are missing one of those days that we let people outside see us as we worship God. For the past several years starting our worship outside on Palm Sunday has been a wonderful bookend to starting Lent with Ashes to Go. To be outside and let the world that passes by this corner know that the God of Love is here.
This year it is very quiet on the corner of 15th & J. Few cars and few pedestrians. At church there are just four people spread out to maximize physical distancing. Today is different. Our routines are disrupted. The way we do church is disrupted. The way we shop is disrupted. We are staying at home so that people will live. We are physically distancing when we walk or go to the grocery store to keep ourselves and others from getting sick.
Nonetheless we are celebrating Palm Sunday. If today is like the last several weeks our livestream of the service will reach far more people than our normal Sunday. As of this writing we reached 369 people last week, and the week before 600 people. In this time of disruption we are still being the church – perhaps we are being the church better now that we have for years. We are no longer on auto-pilot but we are having to think about and reinvent how we worship in community. We are being invited to create a space in each of our homes that we can use to focus our prayers during this Holy Season.
Our Jewish sisters and brothers are also facing Passover, which starts this Wednesday, without their communal Seder dinners. But Passover will still be celebrated. Just as we will remember Israels deliverance at the Great Vigil they will still remember the exodus and Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. In her Shabbat d’rash Rabbi Mona Alfi at Congregation B’nai Israel reminded her congregation that in their remembrance they will still read about the plagues that afflicted Pharaoh and Egypt. In her Shabbat reflection this week on the upcoming Passover she said “At Passover we are reminded that to avoid the 10th and final plague – the death of the first born, we were commanded to stay inside, and to mark our doorposts with the blood of the paschal lamb, so that the Angel of Death will know to pass-over our houses.
Once again, we are commanded to stay in our homes so as to avoid the Angel of Death. But it is important for us to remember that while now is the time for physical distancing – we must not succumb to social or emotional distancing. We must continue to reach out to each other, not in person, but on the phone and the internet, to offer comfort, hope and help when needed, to those who need us. So that the plague of loneliness and depression does not strike us down as well.” A good reminder for all of us.
After the liturgy of the palms our Sunday switches from being Palm Sunday to being Passion Sunday. We just read the shorter version of the Passion according to Matthew. We read the shorter version because we are few to share in the reading. We read the shorter version because it felt right to do so this year. This was not the year for a passion play. It was is a year to get to the essence. I invite you today to read the longer version as part of your personal reflection time. It starts on the 15th verse of the 26th chapter of Matthew and goes until the end of the 27th Chapter. A lot was left out of the shorter reading.
But don’t worry! This coming week we will still have time to remember the events that we left out of todays reading. On Maundy Thursday we will gather together to remember the institution of communion, The Lords Supper at the Last Supper, we will gather on Good Friday and recall the betrayal of one of the disciples and the arrest in the Garden. This week that we call Holy provides us good time to reflect and recall the final events of Jesus time as fully human on this fragile earth.
But today we are going to the essence of the passion. The trial and crucifixion. We heard that when Jesus breathed his last the curtain in the temple was torn in two, the earth shoot, and the rocks where spilt in two.
Our time of physical distancing and being at home gives us a unique opportunity to set time aside to remember. To find ways to be the church that we are called to be. To create that space in our lives for God to call to us in our time of need. To hear God calling us to be apart for a season so that we can celebrate once this pandemic is under control.
We heard in our passion reading that the tombs were opened just as surely as our time of physical distancing will end. Easter and the Empty tomb will be celebrated this year – as it is every year. It will be different this year. But we will still remember the love that refuses to die – the love that could not be killed on the cross. The love that is still calling our names and reminding us that God calls us to worship – not in our building but to worship differently.
Rabbi Mona Alfi, in her d’rash reminded her congregation that ”Passover reminds us that suffering is part of life. But so is celebrating. We tell the story of Passover in good years to remind us to have compassion for those who suffer all around us, from modern day plagues and because of the hard hearts of modern day pharaohs.
And we tell the story of Passover in our difficult years to remind us that redemption is always possible, and that there is always something to celebrate. On our tables, the food we eat reminds us that the bitter and the sweet are of often intermingled, and the stories we tell remind us that just as our ancestors suffered and prevailed, so will we.” And we will prevail in our celebrations.
On Ash Wednesday we were reminded by the prophet Isaiah that what God desires a worship that is not in a building but one that takes care of those in need. God, through the Prophet Isaiah said:
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
This Easter we will celebrate – we will celebrate in community but in a different way – with livestreaming. And we will remember our call to continue with the worship that God desires. To continue to be messengers of the Love that refuses to die.
Today we will end our worship with part of my favorite hymn in our hymnal. My Song is Love Unknown. It starts:
My song is love unknown,
My Savior's love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh, and die?
My Savior's love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh, and die?
On this week that we call Holy I invite you to remember the Love that will not lie. The Love that continually calls us. I invite you to find new ways to make this week Holy. To gather with us as we live stream the services. To find time for quiet reflection – to reflect on the greatest gift given to us, and is continually offered to us – the Love of God.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment