Palm Sunday 2024

I'm so overjoyed. The moat here between me and

you needs to be filled with people, not water.

So if you don't mind moving up a little bit.

I'm so overjoyed to be with you all on this festive

day, this unique day in all the church year.

It's maybe perplexing or just interesting that

most of the gospel you just heard spends time

on the account of Mary bringing precious ointment

to Jesus and pouring it on him. Jesus says, she

does this for my burial. Judas objects, we could

use this money in better ways. Jesus says, the

poor you will have with you always. That's not

a description, that's an accusation. That's how

that needs to be heard. And anyway, most of the

gospel is about this encounter. So, just as a

little preface to what I have to say today, let's

give thanks to God for all that's been done here.

this beautiful decoration, the beautiful singing,

the serving, the reading, the meals, the preparation,

the newly illumined who are with us. Because

like that precious ointment, you and I only have

so much activity of the soul and the body that

we can give. Let us not waste it, especially

this week. We want to pour it out on the Lord.

This is the activity of our soul. It's precious.

God has given us something. Let it be directed

to the Lord. We can pour it out on all kinds

of other things this week and waste it. But like

the woman, and Jesus says, she does this for

my burial, we do that also for his burial and

his resurrection. For some weeks, we've heard

in the gospel, on the third, the fourth, and

the fifth Sundays of Lent, Jesus telling his

disciples that he would be arrested by the chief

priests and the scribes and the authorities.

He would be condemned. He would be crucified,

die, and rise, buried and rise from the dead.

Over and over and over, he's telling them, telling

us. I suppose that if I had been there, seeing

the reception on Palm Sunday, you see the fresco

there and the icon in the middle, and you heard

what happened. Seeing the reception given to

the one who raised Lazarus from the dead, an

astounding thing. Yes, I would have thought,

well. Jesus, you know how he speaks in parables

all the time and mysterious exaggerations like

cut off your right hand, pluck out your eye,

and hate your parents and so forth. Well, he

didn't mean that about being crucified, probably.

It was meaning something else. And the disciples,

St. John says this accusation, they really didn't

know what Jesus was all about here. And they're

thinking, now is our time. Victory is at hand.

The people have palm branches. That's a sign

of military victory. Military victory. So a military

procession is what they want. A man who was dead,

buried for four days. Stinking was brought back

to full life with Jesus and they had a meal together.

It was no ghost. He must, Jesus, This man must

be the Messiah, the anointed of God. This raising

of Lazarus is what excited, enthused, and ignited

the people there in Jerusalem. Christ the King.

And couldn't he? Certainly he would, they think.

I would have thought. For sure. Being the Messiah,

he would bring a great victory like Joshua. of

old over Jericho and all the lands that God had

given to them. Military victory with the might

of God destroying the enemy. The king, Jesus

Christ, saw things quite differently. Not a military

procession. It's the steps on the way to Golgotha.

It's a vision. of the destruction that would

come to Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman military

in 6970 A .D. St. Luke tells us this about this

Palm Sunday procession. And when Jesus was come

near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying,

If thou hast known... even thou at least in this

thy day, this day, the things which belong unto

thy peace. But now they are hid from thine eyes.

For the day shall come upon thee, O city, that

thine enemy shall cast a trench about thee, and

compass thee round about, and keep thee in on

every side, and shall lay thee even with the

ground, and thy children within thee. and they

shall not leave in this place one stone upon

another, because thou knewest not the time of

thy visitation. Jesus sees this procession very

differently, and so do we. However, we're encouraged

today, aren't we? Not to mourn, but to rejoice.

Lent has ended. We might consider the great blessings

we received during the 40 days. Over and over

and over we hear today and last night the command,

Sing, O daughter of Jerusalem, rejoice for your

king is with you. Be glad, rejoice with all your

heart. And the epistle, magnificent epistle from

St. Paul. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I

say rejoice. Let your gentleness, your moderation

be known to all people. especially when you're

driving. The Lord is at hand. And that particular

verse is there to encourage us to be faithful

during these holy days that are coming tonight

and all the way through to Pascha. The Lord is

at hand. Can you walk with him as much as you

can? Can you spend that precious ointment of

your soul that is prayer and mercy and love for

him with him? In a sense, his triumphal entry,

not in a sense, it is. It's not the result, but

it's the prelude to battle and victory, a different

kind of battle. Jesus sent to Jerusalem not to

face Caesar and armies, nor to eliminate religious

establishments. Just think, if he had done that,

this whole thing would be a footnote in some

history book. Nobody would care. Because it happened

over and over again in history. But Jesus enters

into Jerusalem, the holy city, the king of peace,

as the conqueror to build another city, that

kingdom that cannot be shaken, that St. Paul

told us about yesterday in Hebrews. A city that

will have no walls, no boundaries, that God will

be the light of. There will be no need for the

sun. We are receiving a kingdom which cannot

be shaken, therefore let us have grace. And he

enters that city preparing to encounter, defeat

the one who has held creation in the prison of

sin and death. And again, to say what I said

yesterday, all devouring death becomes... begins

to tremble is what one hymn said. Jesus, the

Lamb of God. Lamb is gentle. Lamb is obedient.

Yet in the book of Revelation it says they are

fearful of the Lamb that are sinners. Jesus takes

upon himself all that sin and death. So we hold

our We wave our palms. We wave our branches.

And we're not trying to reenact an event that

cannot be repeated. We hold these branches and

palms as a sign that we are people that live

in that kingdom that cannot be shaken, the new

Jerusalem. And we are fed by God himself in the

Eucharist, the kingdom in which there is no death.

And those who were baptized yesterday have experienced

that first resurrection, the renewal of their

soul. We are gathered around the one who destroyed

the dominion of darkness. We hold our palms and

branches, affirming that we are brothers and

sisters of the Messiah, the one who came. Look

at that fresco. There's a crowd of people on

one side. There's the church. tree there's Jesus

and his disciples between the crowd of people

there's this mountain which cuts a line telling

us that that's the line between the believer

and the unbeliever the one who will say Hosanna

in the highest blessed is he and then be disappointed

that God doesn't do what we want him to do it

cuts the line between The one who will follow

Jesus even to the cross. And the tree with the

children, the innocent children, that's the tree

of life, which is now the Holy Cross, which gives

us life, by which Christ died and entered death

and rose from the dead. Keep that fresco, that

image in mind, with that sharp delineation between

the world and Jesus. He is coming to save that

world. Stick around, brothers and sisters, for

the rest of this week, and you will see that

not enacted, not remembered, but realized in

your own soul and in this community which loves

God. To our Lord be glory now and ever, to ages

of ages. Amen.