Meditation on This Sunday's Gospel

The readings for Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022:

Liturgy of the Palms 

Psalm
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Gospel
Luke 19:28-40

Liturgy of the Passion 
First reading
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm
Psalm 31:9-16
Second reading
Philippians 2:5-11
Gospel
Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49


Those of us who have been going to church for awhile have heard these stories dozens of times. If we go to many or all of the Holy Week services, we'll hear these stories again and again this week. As we enter Holy Week, how can we hear them differently?

This year, what would happen if we imagined these stories from the perspective of a variety of characters? I imagine that many of us hear these stories and imagine ourselves one of the disciples. But what if we told the story through the view of the palms? What if we thought about the donkey's perspective? The poet Mary Oliver did just that in "The Poet Thinks About the Donkey," a poem that you can find here: https://predmore.blogspot.com/2016/03/poem-poet-thinks-about-donkey-by-mary.html.

The journey that takes us from Palm Sunday to Good Friday offers us some serious reminders. If we put our faith in the world, we're doomed. If we get our glory from the acclaim of the secular world, we'll find ourselves rejected sooner, rather than later.

Right now, we live in a larger culture that prefers crucifixion to redemption. For some of us, we see a brutal world that embraces crucifixion: no second chances, perhaps no first chances.  The world hurls a new disease at us while reminding us of old fears, like nuclear weapons.

The Palm/Passion Sunday readings remind us that the world has always been this way, although the particulars change. Jesus and the disciples lived in an empire far more brutal than the ones that Northern Hemisphere, western culture Christians inhabit. We may find comfort in our smaller communities, but we are called to live in ways that will likely bring us into some sort of conflict with the larger culture.

We may not end up hanging on a cross, but we may be among those weeping at the foot of the cross. We may have seen this ending coming, as we have watched our loved ones headed towards an ending that might have been avoidable. We may find ourselves asking, weeping, lamenting: "Is there no other way?"

We know that the story doesn't end on Good Friday. We know that God will make a way when humans cannot see a way. We know that God promises resurrection, even when we can only see ruin every direction we look.

We worship a God who has been working through time and outside of time to transform this human condition. We don't always see it, but Easter assures us that the process is in place and that resurrection will break through, even in the most unlikely circumstances.