Palm/Passion Sunday: I remember the first couple of times I
heard that term. It refers, of course,
to this day, the Sunday prior to Easter Day. It is a kind of expedient. It recognizes that there are a lot of people
who will attend church today and observe The Triumphal Entry. Then they will stay at home and not come to
church again until next Sunday, when they will join in the proclamation of
Easter. They will skip Holy Week, and Good
Friday in particular, and therefore move from celebration to celebration, from
joy to joy, without experiencing any of the anguish of the Upper room;
Gethsemane; The Betrayal; The Arrest; the various trials before the Sanhedrin, before
Herod, or before Pilate; The Flogging; the Via
Dolorosa; The Crucifixion; or The Entombment. So many people will refuse to recognize these
terrible moments. They move from Palms
to Lilies. They ease from Sunday to
Sunday without a lot of discomfort at all.
I had a dear friend and active church member who said of Holy Week, “I
just can’t stand to think of Jesus in a situation like that.”
As I said, I remember the first couple of times I heard of “Palm/Passion
Sunday.” I was horrified. Now you must realize that this was early in
my ministry. My idealism was still running
at a fairly high level. I have come to
understand that there are reasons beyond spiritual laziness why folks might not
be in church on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday or for other Holy Week
observances. So, while I don’t see it as
the best of all possible worlds, I have made my peace with Palm/Passion
Sunday.
It starts off with The Liturgy of the Palms in all three
years of the Revised Common Lectionary Cycles.
It then moves to the Liturgy of The Passion, where in one form or another
it rehearses the death of Jesus. Folks
use these two elements in varying ways, but at the core is a lifting up of both
Triumphal Entry and the Death of Jesus.
And, it may be that such a day encompasses the gospel in a way that we
don’t see on a garden-variety Sunday.
So, ambivalence and all, Happy Palm/Passion Sunday.
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