The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday



Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP 219)

As the official title for this coming Sunday shows, this coming Sunday is a Sunday with multiple parts. We celebrate Palm Sunday with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and we listen to the story of Jesus' Passion in the dramatic reading of the Gospel story. Palm Sunday starts the Holy Week commemorations and celebrations, when we walk with Christ the way of the cross, towards death and ultimately resurrection.

Every year we come to this Sunday with mixed feelings. Lent always seems to go by quickly, even though forty days seems to go so slowly. We come to Palm Sunday excited about the coming story, sad because of its pain and humiliation, confused as to the whiplash of triumph and death, and hopeful as ever about the coming resurrection and new life.

By going through the story multiple times in the next week, we have time to go deeper into and understand more of what happens. By tracing Jesus' footsteps, we walk with the early disciples and learn with our hearts, minds, and souls what God has done for us in giving us Jesus. Come and listen, hear the story of God's great love for us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nutritional Wellness

Image
I love food.  The tastes, the smells, the experience of eating.  I even like gardening and the creation of food. The cooking and baking processes of making individual items into marvelous meals.  My digestive system has a much more complicated relationship with food. There are many things my digestive system overreacts to or feels the need to attack.  Over the years of trying to figure out what my digestive system will tolerate I've had to change my focus on eating for wellness  and learn to create the things I like with the ingredients my body also likes. Its not an immediate change in mindset. It takes time and energy and reminders. Because eating is such a communal experience, it has also taken community adjustment. Finding family and friends who will support my journey and focus on wellness.  I have found that my focus on wellness has been a little bit contagious.  As others have supported me in focusing on digestive wellness, others have been inspired to focus on their own nut
Read more

Book Review: Radiant Rebellion: Reclaim Aging, Practice Joy, And Raise A Little Hell, by Karen Walrond

Image
This isn't a scientific book about aging. It isn't a book about how to age well or what you should do as you are aging. It is a book about aging into who you want to be.  It is a book about looking into the mirror and seeing the smile on your face and light in your eyes. Karen Walrond guides us on the journey she took leading up to her year of aging anniversaries and milestones. She explains how she took the time and space in her life to reflect on what it means to age, to acknowledge and combat internalized ageism, and to figure out who she wanted to be as she grew older. She shares some research, tips, tricks, and lessons learned from professionals and elders in her life. As in her previous books, her conversational writing style, easy prose, and gift of storytelling makes this an interesting and engaging read. She offers thoughtful challenges to the 'normal' ways we think about age and what it means to grow older.  Karen Walrond doesn't take the reader on this jo
Read more

The Question of Faith

  What do you have faith in? Now I know the parables are good today, And I'm not going to talk about them Because one of the most basic things about religion is faith. You can blame St. Paul for today's sermon. All religions require faith. Faith is the belief in things not seen. In some ways, all the ideals we aspire to love, justice, charity, hope they are the bedrock on which any religion is created, including some things we don't think of as religion, but could be construed that way, are things we cannot see. We can't see justice, certainly these days we don't see a lot of evidence for it. We can't see equality or freedom or peace because they are ways of talking about systems in which everyone belongs and feels comfortable being themselves and we know we have not achieved that kind of world. Anyway, without faith, there is no religion no Christianity, no Judaism, no Islam, no Jainism, no pantheism. In the passage from Paul to the Romans, he writes, "Now
Read more