[in]between: Shouting and Silence Palm Sunday

Welcome Piece

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to worship at Collegiate/Wesley! Whether you're here with us in person or joining online from home or somewhere in-between, we are so glad that you’re here today.

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Today is Palm Sunday — the day we remember Jesus entering Jerusalem not with military fanfare, but on a borrowed donkey, greeted by shouts of “Hosanna!” and crowds waving cloaks and branches. It’s a story that lives in the [in]between

So today in worship, we’re asking: What might we learn when we pay attention to the moments of loud shouting and of sacred silence?

And we begin this journey into worship just as Jesus’ journey into Jerusalem began — with a procession.

In just a moment, we’ll be invited to take part in our own version of the Palm Sunday procession. If you would like to be a part of it you can make your way to the back during our call to worship, or you can participate from right where you are.

Let us worship together — with palms in hand, hearts open, and the whole spectrum of sound and silence ready to meet the Spirit.

[in]between

This series we have noted how Jesus stands at the in-between’s of our life

Righteousness and Mercy

rest and growth

faith and works

stranger and neighbor

intention and action

And in this story, our Palm Sunday story, Jesus inhabits several spaces in between—between death and resurrection, shouting and silence, joy and sorrow, victory and peace

But of course our theme this Sunday is Silence versus noise.

As we turn to our Scripture today, we step into a moment that is anything but quiet—at least on the surface. The sounds are vivid and familiar. But underneath all the shouting, there’s a profound silence we might miss if we’re not paying attention.

Setting/recapping the story

Setting the Scene:

Jesus is approaching Jerusalem, coming to the Mount of Olives

He sends two disciples ahead to find a colt that has never been ridden

They're instructed to say, "The Lord needs it" if anyone questions them

The disciples find everything just as Jesus described

They bring the colt to Jesus, throw their cloaks on it, and set Jesus on it

The Procession:

As Jesus rides along, people spread their cloaks on the road

The whole multitude of disciples begins to praise God joyfully

They shout: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"

Notice Luke changes the traditional "Blessed is the one" to "Blessed is the king"

Unlike other Gospel accounts, Luke doesn't mention palm branches

You can almost hear this story . It’s like some commercials for food that you can almost taste, you can almost hear this story.

The shouts, the cloaks and mats being laid down, perhaps the branches to make way, the people that at this point in Jesus’ ministry had surely heard about his healing and certainly were crying out for mercy, The pharisee’s perhaps skeptical.

What we don’t hear is very much noise from Jesus. And it makes me think that Jesus saw this whole moment quite a bit differently than the disciples and the crowds did.

Though Jesus is mostly physically silent, his actions are loud and memorable. In fact a majority of this passage really is about the loudness of Jesus’ actions

The most central [in]between

Of the story is that Jesus mostly silent, and even later laments over the city. The pharisees say why don’t you quiet down the crowd and Jesus says even if I did the rocks would cry out. Meaning that the words that are being spoken and shouted here are an outward manifest of the much more significant much deeper work that God is doing throughout all of creation.

Jesus teaches us that when...

And that’s the first lesson we receive from this moment— That sometimes, when words fail or fall short, prophetic actions speak more clearly and more powerfully than anything we could say.

When words fail, prophetic actions speak

Throughout scripture, when words failed to move people, prophets turned to symbolic actions

The donkey represented an alternative kingdom: one of humility, service, and peace

Jesus deliberately chose to fulfill Zechariah 9:9, entering on a donkey rather than a war horse

Specifically a donkey that had not been ridden yet a Colt

This wasn't just transportation—it was a visual sermon challenging the Roman imperial system

"Jesus riding in on a donkey was a mockery of the whole system" where power was displayed through military might

In a world of endless talking, Jesus knew when to let his actions communicate his message

One of the ways that we can think about the difference between our silence and our noise is by thinking about what actions God might be calling us to.

That there are certainly times when we ought to be silent in voice and loud in action

And what is it that the people and that Jesus are LOUD in.

No one takes the life of the one who comes to lay it down for everyone.

Be loud in sacrificial love

Irony in the name "Jerusalem" - means "city of peace" yet would become site of profound violence

Be loud in peace

Jesus entered the city fully aware of what awaited him

Not a tragic hero walking unknowingly into a trap

“No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18)

Nobody took Jesus' life; he laid it down for everyone

Conflicting expectations about power:

Crowds wanted a king to overthrow Rome through military might

Religious leaders wanted restoration of their influence

Disciples hoped for positions in a new political regime

"Everyone wanted him to use power the way it has always been used"

Jesus' deliberate counter-cultural symbolism:

Chose a donkey, not a warhorse

Not mere transportation but a declaration, a statement piece of you will

Refused to play by world's rules of power and domination

The rules where the biggest, the loudest, the most powerful always win

From where they were physically at Jesus was at a point where he could see the whole city really well, and also he is probably lamenting that he knows that the city is going to choose political power over the way of Christ and that is not going to pay off.

The stark contrasts about to unfold:

Hands waving palms → fists shouting "Crucify him!"

Cloaks spread in homage → purple robe of mockery

"Blessed is the king" → "We have no king but Caesar"

Jesus standing in multiple in-between spaces:

Between celebration and agony

Between world's definition of victory and divine understanding

Between death and resurrection

Jesus' purpose:

Not to take life but to give his own

Not to grab power but to demonstrate different kind of power

Power of self-giving love, forgiveness, transformation

And yet—what was Jesus loud in?

The people around him were loud in their hopes. The Pharisees were loud in their skepticism. But Jesus?

Jesus was loud in love.

Loud in peace. Loud in sacrifice.

And that’s what makes this scene so poignant—because we already know where it’s headed.

Jerusalem, the “City of Peace,” is about to become the site of unspeakable violence.

The crowd that shouts "Hosanna!" today will, in just a few days, shout "Crucify him!"

Some artist renditions of this scene have even included people fashioning crosses in the background.

There is even an old story about the Donkey that goes some thing like there is a certain breed of Donkeys that have a cross on their back. And in fact one of those Donkey’s is at Wesley Woods named Boswell. and people guess that Jesus might have ridden on that type of donkey and have a moment of foreshadowing.

I wonder though if we flip that assumption on it’s head, what if Jesus was moving us toward ressurection not towards death.

God moves us towards Resurrection when all we can see is death

We are in the now and not yet

We will have to give the story of the in-between

Even though Christ has victory it might not feel like that to us all of the time

Grief

anger

Sin struggles

systematic problems

We do however have a hope for the trajectory that we are moving

We have hope because we know how the story turns out

When you read or watch something the first time and you don’t know if the main character makes it out alive and it is tense

Whereas when you have seen it several times before the specific type of anxiety is a little more mellow

It is true that this story feels like it is decades away from the cross, which feels like it is decades away from the resurrection.

The truth is the same people that shouted Hosanna will be the ones shouting before Pilate on Friday.

The loadness, the boldness and the simultaneous quietness in which Jesus enters this story tells

It shows the depth of God’s love for us

That even though Christ entered Jerusalem with Crucifixion in mind we have a hope that he also entered Jerusalem with a least a glimmer of resurrection in his mind as well.

And here's the revolutionary truth that changes everything: What looked like absolute defeat would become the ultimate victory. The cross—Rome's instrument of terror and shame—would become the symbol of salvation and hope. The grave—humanity's final enemy—would become the womb of resurrection.

Jesus came to Jerusalem not to take life but to give his own. Not to grab power but to demonstrate a different kind of power altogether. The power of self-giving love. The power of forgiveness. The power that transforms enemies into friends.

But Jesus offers another way. His silence is not weakness—it’s a rejection of the noisy systems of violence and power that ruled the world then and still do now.

His quiet entrance on a donkey was not the absence of power. It was a different kind of power.

The power of self-giving love. The power of forgiveness. The power to transform enemies into friends.

And that’s what makes Palm Sunday so powerful—it places us right at the edge of contradiction.

You

We live here too— [in[between

In that tension between knowing the story and feeling like it’s still unfinished.

Yes, resurrection is coming—but for many of us, it still feels far off.

We carry grief, sin, frustration, doubt. We know the hope, but we’re still waiting for it to break through.

But friends—don’t rush past this in-between.

Because even when all we can see is death, God is already moving toward resurrection.

Conclusion

Jesus came to Jerusalem not to take life, but to give his own.

Not to grab power, but to show us what real power looks like.

And he’s still doing that—still showing up in our silence and our noise, still inviting us to live not with the power of domination, but with the power of love.

Prayer Time

Paul Valery says that “God created everything out of Nothing but the Nothingness shines through”

Before we pray together, I mention that we will have few brief moments of silence during our prayer— not long, but intentional. It’s a way to let God meet us not just in our words, but in the quiet spaces too.

Let us pray.

God of the in-between, between hosannas and heartbreak, between the noise of our world and the quiet of your presence, between all we understand and all we still wonder about.

You are the God who hears our shouts of joy AND our cries of sorrow, the One who walks with us when the road is lined with cheering crowds and the same road that a cross will soon be carried down

And now, O God, in this noisy world and in our noisy minds, we take a moment to pause, to breathe, to listen for your still, small voice.

[brief pause]

We invite your Spirit to meet us in the silence now — to name what our words cannot, to hold what we cannot carry alone, to speak to us in ways beyond words.

[intentional 20–30 second silence — you can extend as needed during worship]

[pause, then gently continue]

God, thank you for being present in both the shouting and the silence, in our questions and our convictions, in our doubt and our praise. Give us the courage to cry out when justice demands it, and the trust to be still when waiting is our job.

As we walk toward the cross this Holy Week, help us to see your love woven through every step.

We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, who entered the city not to take power, but to give love.

and who taught us to pray saying: (Lord’s Prayer)

Affirmation of Faith

We believe that many years ago

a peaceful parade wove its way through the streets of Jerusalem.

We believe that on that day

the people cried out,

longing and praying for a better world.

We believe that these longings

came from a place of deep hope,

and we believe

that hope cannot be silenced.

So we listen for the Spirit.

We sing Hosanna.

We pay attention.

For in between the silence and the song,

we believe the Spirit is speaking.

Amen.

Benediction

As you leave this place, may you find God in every messy middle. May you know that the world is bigger than two sides. May you trust that you are made in the image of God, and therefore, you contain multitudes. So may you move through this world with an open heart, with a curious mind, and with the confidence that you do not go alone. God is with you in the mountains, in the valleys, and everywhere in between. Believe that good news, and go in peace.