Sermon - Palm/Passion Sunday

Sermon - Palm/Passion Sunday
Luke 19:28-40; Luke 23:1-49
March 28, 2010
"palm crosses"

Today is Palm Sunday. We begin with a procession with palms in hand. This is the procession is of the “triumphal entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Jesus is lifted onto a colt and Jesus rides into Jerusalem hailed "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" Which echoes what the angelic choir (Luke 2:14) proclaims to the shepherds when Christ was born.
The palms/cloaks were placed to cover the path of Jesus to show honor. The palms branch symbolized victory.
Jesus was entering Jerusalem as a king…not as a warrior king on a stallion, but a humble king on a donkey proclaiming a message of peace.
As much as this is a joyful scene, it is full of paradox, because we know what Jesus is going into Jerusalem to endure…he will endure his passion, his suffering and death on the cross. And so today is also Passion Sunday.

So, First we hear the Gospel lesson of the Palms and then the Gospel lesson of the Passion.
We begin with a procession where we waive our palms, and sing praises to Jesus our King, as he enters Jerusalem….and this procession becomes that of the “Via Dolorosa,” or the “Via Crucis”: the Way of the Cross, the painful path that leads to the cross.
One tree that bears green palms and one tree that is cut and used for a cross.
First we hear “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" … then we hear the eerie shouts “Crucify Him!”
We hear of the One who is lifted up onto a colt … and then we hear of the One who is lifted up on a cross.
We hear of the One who is praised as a King … and then we hear of the One who is mocked as “the king of the Jews”
We hear of the One who proclaims a reign of peace … and then we hear of the One who is brutally executed

There may seem to be a tension between Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday.
The palms (symbol of life) and the cross (symbol of death).
The shouts of jubilation and the shouts of agony.
It is paradoxical. But this is the tension we live in…

We hold these palms in our hand. The palms -- what better symbol of beauty, of life, paradise, fertility – they shine in the sun and they stay green all year. These palms that come right off the trees that grow so abundantly in California.
California itself embodies this tension …
Below the beauty and shadow of these palm trees in Long Beach is an unemployment rate of 14.5%, there is all sorts of suffering, lonliness, homelessness, addiction, abuse, violence, pain. Through our Lenten journey we walked through the wilderness, came face to face with the suffering.

But as we endure all the sufferings, the pain, the humanness, the brokenness… And as we confront the sin, the evil, the oppression, the injustice, the poverty of this world … We turn to Jesus who entered into Jerusalem and endured all of it, all of the suffering, pain, evil of this world – in his passion and death.
But it is out of this suffering that comes our hope… It causes us to sing "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" It causes us to honor him with our palm leaves… this reminder of life and our hope. We hold these palm leaves to remind us that, though there will be suffering and death … in this saving act of Jesus springs life eternal.

So this is the tension we live in… We live in the midst of suffering and death … but we hold these palm branches, ever green and ever shining in the sun, to remind us of the endurance of life.
We often take these palms and we tie them into a cross – which symbolizes the paradox of this day. We live in the suffering and the joy; in the shame and the glory; in the death and life.
So as we enter into Holy Week and walk into Jerusalem with Jesus through his passion and death, and as we walk through the sufferings and struggles of this world in our lives, let us hold tight to our palm leaves, that give us hope in the life that endures all things. Amen