Passion and Palm Sunday - Year A - April 2nd, 2023

Introduction to Holy Week

Good morning,

Welcome to this entryway to the Holy Week - we process in, just like Jesus openly processed in, without fear, into Jerusalem…into the lion’s den, where many laid in waiting to get to him.

What follows is a familiar story for many here. Precious last moments of tranquility with Jesus’ closest - the moments we almost every Sunday remember during communion and then…the passion narrative begins to unfold in many parts. It has many dimensions - spiritual, interpersonal, political, biblical, religious.... A narrative full of human cowardice, political impotence, predictable complacency, misguided anger, and religious fanaticism.

And then there is Jesus, who faithfully carries out God’s will until the painful, very real moment of death. Just because he will rise again....that doesn’t make his death any less awful.

During Lent, we have explored assigned texts with dual lens in mind and this will carry through into the Holy Week. I invite you to hold onto this dual lens. Notice not only what Jesus is doing and saying, but also what those around him are doing and saying. We need to pay close attention to both. There can be no proclamation of glory of God without attending to the brokenness of this world.

Just like we cannot just immerse ourselves blissfully into religious rituals and ignore the world around us. A world where children continue to die in classrooms due to the toxic obsession with “freedom” of bearing arms, a world, where someone who tremendously profits from overpriced inmate calls to their loved one sits on the board of Princeton Theological Seminary, a world, where a color of your skin decides whether you can access a job, have good healthcare, or have a place to live…in short, a world, where people, sharing many traits with Jesus and his situation, receive unjust condemnation and are crucified by systems not unlike those in place during the first century under the occupation of Roman Empire. Kyrie eleison.

There will be more than enough opportunity to cheer, proclaim hallelujahs, and give thanks to God, but let us now hold onto this tension - a tension between Jesus’ faithfulness and his exemplary compassion and selflessness and well, what almost everybody else is doing in this narrative - betrayal, cowardice, complacency…you name it. Let us journey forth, amen.