Year A - Passion Sunday: Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023
Hosanna! Liberate Us.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest! Amen
On Friday afternoon hundreds of people walked out of a grand building on Capitol Street waving symbols of hope, chanting resistance, and gathering to tell stories of pain and redemption, like our march from the Chapel. At Central High School, transgendered students and their allies walked out of class in civil disobedience. Their impulse mirrors our Palm Sunday rites: make a spectacle of our story of hope and change the world.
The students’ goal was to convince the Nebraska Unicameral to reject proposed bills that would curtail the rights of transgendered children and their parent to medical care and school activities. It brought to mind the last Sunday sermon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached also on March 31 just days before his martyrdom. He preached at The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and reminded the congregation of God’s vision, a world of justice, mercy, and wholeness.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest!
Christ’s entry into Jerusalem is a political act: Jesus on the donkey is the image of the prophecy of Zechariah’s conquering Messiah King. “Zech 9:9 …your king comes to you; …humble and riding on a donkey... 10he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” Jesus and his disciples planned an entry that would say to the Roman Empire, “This is what a King in Jerusalem looks like.”
Our Palm Sunday walk and reading of the Passion teaches how we live the Way of Christ. We wave symbols of resistance – palms were for the entry of emperors on war horses, not wandering rabbis on donkeys. We chant, “Hosanna” a Hebrew word translated as save us or liberate us. We proclaim God overthrows human empires of fear and oppression to replace them with the Commonwealth of Divine Peace.
Empire ideology devalues human life to provide power and material comfort for a small slice of the population. Empire ideology imposes cultural uniformity as inherently good and oppresses people who don’t fit the mold. Empire ideology chooses security for that slim slice of citizens above the common good. It is strengthened by internal conflict. Empire ideology is the soil of every movement suppressing human rights.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest!
Jesus was my first example that opposing evil needs to be public, consistent, and comes at a price. My history classes and my parents introduced me to changemakers from all over the world. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr particularly shaped my theology, my morals, and my politics while pointing me, always, to Jesus. A prophet, a pastor, a teacher, and an advocate for the dignity of every person: Rev. Dr. King is a Christian saint. The Episcopal Church celebrates his feast day on April 4, the day of his martyrdom.
While the model of radically non-violent civil disobedience sprang from Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom movement in India, Rev. King recognized in it the strategy of Jesus: preach in public places to a gathered crowd and use symbolic civil disobedience for public attention to overthrow institutional wrongs. He read in the gospel accounts and Hebrew prophets that taking on society’s empire ideology can be costly, but it is Christian necessity.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest!
In our scriptures, God’s favor rests always on leaders who work to achieve social equity, care for marginalized people and those in poverty, leaders committed to compassionate economic practices and justice. God’s economy is joyful with all of Creation living as their whole selves in content existence without violence of any kind. Not only will death be no more, in God’s dream there is no killing, or sorrow, no hunger, or illness, no reason for anyone or creature to weep in pain. That is the vision Jesus of Nazareth wants to provoke riding that donkey into Jerusalem.
It is the vision of our hopes and work through Trinity Cathedral. As we walk through this sacred week and we meditate on these ancient stories, I invite you to draw a line from Christ’s life to our own world today. Where is a Christ-like leader for you? Is it one of the transgendered teens at Central High School? Is it a civil rights prophet like Bishop Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign or changemakers like X Gonzalez with March for Our Lives?
I’m showing my bias for activists. Christ-modeled leaders are in elected office. They lead parishes, businesses, non-profits, sports teams, and classrooms. Your Christ-like leader may be a parent, police officer, or employee..or he sexton at your Church, like our own Maurice. Reflect also on which leaders tempt you to empire ideology? They may disguise it as good for you or aligned with scripture.
Ask yourself if they act like Jesus, the protest organizer-- humble, joyful, and welcoming outcasts; Jesus, marching in the Civil Rights Movement next to Rev. Dr. King; Jesus, chanting about love and acceptance with the Central High School students; Jesus, your Messiah willing to march to the cross for love of all children of God.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest!
Dean Vanessa Clark+