A Post-Modern Palm Sunday

This last Sunday, our Palm Sunday worship service included some Postmodern narratives of the Palm Sunday story. With the help of our youth to determine what events reflect a similar narrative to the biblical Palm Sunday story, I wrote the following readings as calls to action from modern day protests/parades. Our readers included youth and adults with personal connections to the modern day narratives.  As we enter into Holy Week, let us consider which parade will we join, our needs we cry out,  and who we will choose to follow?   Let us pray that hope, love and peace change our cry's of Hosanna to shout's of Hallelujah.

​Jesus’s parade into Jerusalem was planned in advance, a pre-arranged counter-protest. There were actually two processions that day. Two opposite pageantries of two different Kingdoms: Pilate’s Empire, and Jesus’ radical reimagining of the Kingdom, where “swords become plowshares, the wolf lies down with the lamb”, where “every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain”.   Jesus led the way that day. On the back of a donkey not a chariot.  Amid our shouts of ‘Hosanna’, we waved palm branches and it felt like a party. It was, however, much more importantly a protest. A joyful protest of radical equality through radical love.  Jesus dared to imagine a future that is not yet here. When we party, we love the moment.  But it is in joyful protest that we rise above the moment and say ‘it can even be better than this’.  Maybe it was our joy that scared Pontius Pilate that day.  #PalmSunday. 

Her name was Marsha P. Johnson. A Transgender-Fem activist.  An unlikely leader in our society’s eyes.  She stood up against oppression, discrimination, and police brutality.  She stood for radical inclusion.  Long ago everyone cheered when Jesus called for justice and freedom. An unlikely leader in society’s eyes back then. The crowds followed him into the city, shouting and waving palm leaves. Their chants were not so different from ours that first year: “Yes, we can! Out of the closet and into the streets! We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” Jesus was like a superstar making a grand entrance. But he did it in his own modest, gentle style. He surprised people by riding on a donkey. Some of his supporters, those who had mainstream success, urged him to quiet the others — assimilate, don’t alienate. Tone it down. Act respectable, don’t demand respect. Stop flaunting it. His answer: I’m here to liberate people! If the crowds were silent, the stones would cry out!”  It was that kind of day, a Palm Sunday sort of day, when everyone shouted in the streets for equality and freedom. We wave rainbows now instead of palm branches.  #PrideParade

Women led the way that day. There were so many people in the streets of cities all around the world.  It was a protest, but it felt like a parade. We were unified. The energy of God’s love fueled Jesus and the protest movement he led into Jerusalem.  Jesus had been showing the people the way of love all along, not claiming privilege, but using his power for and with others.  He had shown them that only love has the power to make things safe, and only love can strengthen what is broken, and only love can heal what is fragmented.  They had experienced God’s presence living among them and standing with them.  They stood together that day in Jerusalem.  Men, women, and children.  Young, old, able bodied, and assisted.  Everyone was filled with love.  Everyone was so filled with the possibilities of love that they weren’t afraid of the empire powers rattling their armor at the other end of the city.  We too stood together that day in the crowded streets. We wore pink knit hats that day.  We held hands, we marched, and waved protest signs instead of palm branches, for the love of our whole body.   #WomensMarch

Every night at the same time the crowds would cheer.  Not with palm branches, but with pots and pans.   Neighbors leaning out windows, on balconies and porches, stepping daringly onto sidewalks, or even waving from rooftops. A shout of gratitude. A hopeful prayer expressed into the space between us.  Although the streets were empty, it still felt like a parade even in the midst of our isolation.   We united in gratitude for our essential workers. Our nurses, our doctors, our first responders.  We shouted our thanks to the least of them too.  The grocery clerks and stockers, the truck drivers, Uber drivers, and delivery workers who worked in spite of the danger.  We also protested that which might harm the common good. ‘Save us’ we cried!  Jesus demanded that tables be turned.  The tables of those whose profits come before the pain of others. The money changers who control accessible care for all.   Instead of palms, people banged pots and pans, clapped and yelled, waved and shouted, to make as much joyful noise for as long as they… were able.  We didn’t clap because we wanted to party. We clapped because we needed it, and because others needed it. We clapped because we need others.   #Commongood 

In procession, we walked out of school at 10:00 a.m. From every corner of our nation, we walked out of our classrooms, for at least 17 minutes. Some of the high school teachers witnessed the walk out and spoke about how it was a moving experience. A subversive but also sacred act. These walkouts were without a doubt the largest protest led by high school students in the history of our county. At the same time, government officials were planning a multimillion-dollar military parade. A symbolic show of force from the world’s most powerful nation.  Just like Palm Sunday. Two processions. Two parades. Two Powers: one proclaiming the might of the Empire, the other the Kin-dom of God.   Jesus was willing to walk out in the name of love.  Jesus walked into the crowd with peace as his power. He marched for the radically vulnerable.  We marched inspired by the vulnerable lives of our peers. We marched because we believe enough is enough. We marched because we choose love over might and peace over power.  We are all faced with the question –which parade will we join?  Which Kingdom will we serve?  Who will we follow?   #MarchforourLives

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