Bulletin
Dear Friends,
This Sunday marks the final leg of our Lenten journey, which began on Ash Wednesday nearly six weeks ago. It also marks the beginning of Holy Week and the dark, austere pilgrimage that leads from Jerusalem to Golgotha and on to the tomb in the garden, where the body of Jesus is laid to rest. As Jesus draws closer to the cross next week, the cheers and hallelujahs of this Sunday – otherwise known as Palm Sunday – will slowly fade to jeers, and then to a deafening silence.
Palm Sunday has been called a “false Easter” over the centuries. When Jesus enters Jerusalem, he is welcomed as a king by those who have longed for a Messiah their whole lives. The poor, the oppressed, the sick, the hopeless – these are the ones who cannot contain themselves when they see Jesus ride into town. A new day has dawned, they believe. The Messiah is here. Nothing will ever be the same again.
But in less than a week, they will wake up to find that it’s back to business as usual. Nothing, it seems, has changed at all. Jesus has been crucified and buried. Another promising leader has come and gone, and Rome still has its heel firmly on their necks.
So why do we still sing hallelujah on Palm Sunday, knowing how the week will end so violently? Because, as Jesus says, ‘If we were silent, even the stones would shout their praise’ (Luke 19:28-40).
The kingdom of God is coming to us. With Easter so near, God really is about to do a new thing among us. And in case our unbelieving, skeptical silence might prevent that truth from getting out, God has already arranged for the stones to shout it out for us.
See you Sunday,
Rev. Mark