Dear friends,
We begin Holy Week this weekend with Palm Sunday where Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey, greeted by crowds who spread palm branches and their cloaks on the road, shouting “Hosanna” and hailing him as the Son of David.
This may sound like an event that happened a long time ago but people today are still crying out to be saved, “Hosanna!” I read a poem recently and wanted to share it with you as we prepare our hearts for Holy Week.
Either / or
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
There was tumult in the city, a crowd.
He entered riding a donkey;
clearly he wasn’t a billionaire.
People stood along the road with signs
and cheered, or sang protest songs
against the Emperor, while, uptown,
the Emperor’s local enforcer, back from a golf trip,
also rode in, with the usual motorcade.
One couldn’t bow to both. It was one or the other.
The Pharisees saw exactly what was gong on.
“Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”
But there was no stopping them,
the voice crying out for deliverance
coming from the very earth.
Of course it would amount to nothing.
Soon the dissident would be arrested,
without a real trial, just a lot of accusations.
Encouraged by religious hardliners,
the governor, overnight, issued an executive order
that he be eliminated, and that was that.
Still, year after year we gather along that road,
singing our hopeful songs of deliverance
and waving our palms for a lost cause.
Year after year we’ll stand by as he’s executed.
We’ll betray and deny and kick ourselves afterward,
like we’ve scored a goal for the opposing team.
And then year after year we’ll go on, like onlookers,
like concertgoers, or maybe people who have
observed a video of some tribal initiation rite;
we’ll go on, pleased that he’s died for us,
but not really clear which side we’re on.
Let us always be on the side of love and justice.
Come join us for Holy Week, starting with this Sunday!
Shalom,
Pauline