This Lent, our ecumenical brothers and sisters from Upper James City County gathered for worship every Wednesday night, slowly walking through Matthew’s Palm and Passion Narrative – in fact, our last gathering will be this Wednesday at Hickory Neck. The idea of walking slowly through the Passion was most of us have to navigate Palm Sunday in ways that do not do the massive amounts of scripture justice: some of us only read the Palm narrative, saving the passion for Good Friday; some of us only read the portion of the Passion narrative that includes Jesus’ trial before Pilate through crucifixion; and the crazy Episcopalians read both the Palm and Passion narratives like a fire hose, overwhelming us with “Hosannas!” and heartache[i] all in one breath. When we started Lent, I thought reading these narratives in seven segments, with a sermon for each one would make them more digestible – make me feel like I could contain their grief and shame in small portions. But even as each sermon mingled sin and grace, sorrow and comfort, heartaches and hosannas, I still felt overwhelmed by enormity of the story – perhaps even more overwhelmed than when we just take the texts all at once, like chugging down bad-tasting medicine.
I have been thinking about contrasts of this day – the high of waving palms and proudly welcoming our king, to the low of betrayal, denial, and complicity in Jesus’ death – and I realized what makes me the most uncomfortable with the contrasts of this day is that how similar this day is to every day we live. We watch in horror as tornados lay waste to homes, praying for the victims, while not acknowledging or doing anything about the fact that those who will likely suffer the most are the poor, who can only afford land in the most tornado-prone locations and whose homes are the least safely constructed because that is all they can afford. Or we make supportive posts on social media about International Transgender Day of Visibility, and yet we do not work with our legislature, schools, and workplaces to ensure the transgendered children of God’s legal and physical safety. Or we read about another mass school shooting in Kentucky – one that includes the life of a nine-year old daughter of a pastor – one that is just the latest in a list of school shootings so long you’ll spend minutes scrolling the list – and then go about our lives not doing anything to change things, just praying that hopefully that won’t happen to this pastor’s nine-year old daughter. And all those events happened in just this past week.
Palm Sunday feels like whiplash – a contrast in hosannas and heartache. But what makes that whiplash so unsettling is that we live that whiplash every single day. And what makes that whiplash even more painful today is we do not get to point our fingers at others, shaking our heads in a high-and-mighty fashion. No, those who wave palms on Sunday and call for crucifixion on Friday are each of us. No, Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial are ours. No, Pilate’s weaseling, ignoring of warnings from his wife, and his attempt to clean his hand is ours. No, the faithful who plot against Jesus and demand Jesus Barrabus over Jesus the Messiah are us. All the work we have done this Lent – from the Great Litany, to our penitential order, to songs of our sinfulness – all of that work gets relived today, and we experience viscerally what our sinfulness does – our sinfulness leads to the degradation and death of Jesus, the conscription of each of us into denying goodness, the witnessing to our children of what failing to be faithful means.
So how in the world do we leave this place today with even an ounce of hope? How do we look our failings in the eye, at how very low we have sunk, both in Jesus’ day and in our own day, and walk out of here renewed for hosannas? Well, as the great theologian Mr. Fred Rogers would say, “Look for the helpers.” Mr. Rogers always said when something is scary, or frightening, or full of tragedy, looking for the helpers can give us hope.[ii] And believe Mr. Rogers or not, there are helpers in our text today. The crowds are helpers to Jesus in the Palm narrative as they proclaim his identity with joy and vigor. Judas becomes a helper as he returns his silver pieces that are used to create a burial place for foreigners. Pilate’s wife, a foreigner and uninterested party, becomes a helper when her dream warns her about Jesus. When forced to carry a cross, Simone of Cyrene becomes a helper. A centurion becomes a helper when he, despite being a part of the crucifixion, also admits Jesus’ divinity. Joseph of Arimathea becomes a helper when he boldly asks for Jesus’ body and buried Jesus. The Marys and mothers become helpers as they keep watch and guard over Jesus, witnessing their devotion and commitment to Jesus.
For all the devastating failings of humankind, even in the darkness of this massive amount of text, there are still hosanas to be found among the heartache. Our invitation this week, as we continue to journey through lightness and dark, is to not just look for the helpers, but to become helpers outside these walls. Our lives do not stop resembling the chaos of hosannas and heartache today. But we can be helpers who shine light in the darkness, who bring hosannas to the table. Witnesses found their way on this darkest of days many years ago. Now, our turn to shine light begins. Amen.
[i] Karoline Lewis, “Dear Working Preacher: Hosanna and Heartache,” March 26, 2023, as found at https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/hosanna-and-heartache on April 1, 2023.
[ii] Fred Rogers, “Fred Rogers: Look for the Helpers,” posted by Alex Forsythe, excerpted from Television Academy Foundation’s interview, as found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGHtc_D328 on April 1, 2023.
Seeking and Serving 