Both Sides Now Palm Sunday 2010

Holy Week moves from Palm Sunday triumph to the cold of the Holy Saturday grave. The high point seems to fade fairly quickly, but the suffering is extended.  I wonder how long Jesus was caught up in the elation of the moment. The two sides of Hosanna are evident here. It was apparently a cheer of victory in the time of Jesus. We are in the midst of March madness where the cries of fans echo in living rooms, bars, and arenas for upsets in the making. The Canadian woman in the Olympics had just lost her precious mother to a heart attack and then heard the cheers of the crowd and shared their tears as she performed beautifully, freezing her grief for a few precious minutes of artistry on the ice.

 

The crowd cheered, Hosanna. Hosanna means save us. So it is a plea as much as a cry of acclamation. Did the people know that they were quoting Ps. 118? We hear the irony in the shouts, for salvation will emerge along a different path than they imagined. The healer will be wounded. Yet, the wounded one would have this horror become an instrument for the healing of souls. The one who is our judge would himself be judged by the very political power he rejected in his mission. The conquering hero on a beast of burden would soon himself be burdened by the terrible weight of a cross. Jesus hears shouts of acclaim as the representative of political hopes, of national hopes. Soon he would hear shouts of crucify him. The same power opposed on Palm Sunday would be the instrument of his untimely death.From cheers and palm branches waving and paving the way into town, the street gets splattered with sweat and blood.

 

Holy Week reminds me of the wedding vows. The holy  can occupy space that encompasses what we go through. In the Incarnation, Jesus makes common cause with us, in all of our joys and sorrow, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. Loyalty allows us to stay with someone in the midst of the ups and downs of life that give us emotional whiplash. Love remains stable apart from the circumstances. Life does throw us highs and lows in the space of one week. If we charted our lives on a graph, it rarely stays level for long.  ( Lewis-god in the grave; god choosing the grave)

 

God gives a fixed central point, a point of stability, the eye of the hurricane, even amid the rough and tumble. When we are in ecstasy, it is easy to forget about God. God is with us and celebrates with us in Palm Sunday moments. When we are at our low points, God is with us. When God seems utterly absent, perhaps then we not only fall on our knees for God's help, but we are closer to God in those Good Friday, dying moments as well. We so want the good times to last forever, but in a fallen world they cannot. Even when hard times are relegated to memory, we can relive them in a moment. God's love can wrap the divine arms around both poles of experience. My working title for this sermon was "Both Sides Now," and old Judy Collins song.  I gave Margaret the title, yin and yang. In Chinese thought they have a symbol many of us now even recognize of yin and yang, a representation of the sun and moon, the two great lights of the sky, a joining of opposites.In its way Holy Week brings those sides together in a short space of time.