28 March, 2010

Luke 19:28-40 Procession with Palms
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 23:1-49

The “official” title for this Sunday in the Church year is “The Sunday of the Passion” but I have come in recent years to think that a non-liturgical title for this day might be “Oxymoron Sunday.”  The reason for this is the fact that on this day, two contrasting, mutually contradictory themes are put together, similar to other familiar “oxymorons:” jumbo shrimp; pretty ugly; thunderous silence; or one that would be good title for today: “Sweet Sorrow.”

We began our service today with sweetness and joy as we marched from the courtyard into the sanctuary, carrying our palm branches while singing “All Glory Laud and Honor to You Redeemer King.”   And scarcely did these words of joy leave our lips before the mood began to change as we heard the words of the Prayer of the Day inviting us to draw near to the sacred cross to contemplate on the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One moment we are part of the people welcoming Jesus as he rides through one of the gates leading into the the City of Jerusalem.  And moments later we find ourselves as part of a totally different crowd -- one that is shouting “Crucify Him, Crucify” followed by the sorrowful procession that slowly wends its way along on the Via Dolorosa to the place where Jesus will be put to death.  We begin our worship with the sweet notes of “Glory, laud, and honor;” and before we know it we move into the sorrowful notes of “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.”

Those of us who are long-time Lutherans or Catholics remember a day when Palm Sunday was simply Palm Sunday.  We not only got to act out the biblical version of this familiar ticker-tape parade, we were able to spend the whole service thinking about what this triumphal entry meant when people greeted that this man riding on a donkey as their good and gracious king.  Once upon a time, Palm Sunday provided a welcome break from the seriousness of the Lenten season; a sort of “Easter before Easter.”  It was a short “time out” before we plunged into the darkness of Holy Week.

But a few years ago that changed.  Palm Sunday was expanded to become Passion Sunday -- a day when the Gospel Lesson would be a long, extensive reading from Matthew, Mark, or Luke -- a reading  that includes all the events of the week following Palm Sunday, taking us  right up to the point where Jesus draws his last breath of life.

Why this juxtaposition of sweetness and sorrow?  The usual answer given is that fewer and fewer Christians were able or willing or able to take time to attend Holy Week services, especially the ones often scheduled for up to three hours on Good Friday afternoon.  That meant, people were coming more and more to Easter morning with no background of the events  of the last week of Jesus life, and therefore unaware of why the news of the Resurrection was such “good news” to those who found the empty tomb.  Palm Sunday, without the “rest of the story” of what happens in the following week, became a “little Easter.”  In order to counter that, a lengthy reading of the Passion Story became part and parcel of this Sunday, so that those cannot come to the services planned this coming week, will at least have the stage set for the Festival of Easter.

Obviously, I hope it will be possible for you to be at St. Paul this week  for the services that are scheduled as we welcome Pastor Kevin back from his sabbatical.  And if that is not possible, I would at least encourage you to take time during the week to read and meditate on the passages in one or more of the Gospels that recount all the events after Palm Sunday as part of your own spiritual preparation for Easter Sunday.

In just a few moments, we will read a portion of the Passion Story from the Gospel of Luke.  While normally at St. Paul the Gospel is read before the homily, our Cantor, Mark, agreed to a change this morning to allow me to placing the homily before that reading.  I wanted to do this in order to make a few introductory comments about this reading from the Gospel of Luke, and then to let that reading stand alone without further commentary as a means of beginning  our immersion into Holy Week.