The cross is the assurance that effective prophetic criticism is done not by an outsider but always by one who must embrace the grief, enter into the death, and know the pain of the criticized one.
―Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
Hi Friends!
My apologies that this is going out later than it is intended. Things got away from me this past week so I am playing some catch up on various projects; this is why I need an assistant! LOL!
So, this issue is going to be sent out to everyone and I hope you will be blessed by it. Paid subscribers will get a special video reflection along with this issue of The People’s Priest, and the video reflection will focus on the same topic but go into more depth.
So, today in the Christian world, we celebrate Palm (Passion) Sunday, which is the beginning to the most sacred time of the Christian calendar, Holy Week. Palm Sunday is known all over the world as the day when Christians gather at church, wave palm branches (some countries use other branches like olive branches etc), shout “hosanna!” and carry on with extra pomp commemorating Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem thus beginning the final week of his life. Why is this important?
Well, this day is important because it is about protest, defiance, and subversion. Jesus rides into the great city of Jerusalem through the eastern gate, most likely because King Herod was riding in at the same time through the opposite gate and Jesus wanted to draw people’s attention away from Herod. However, unlike Herod, Jesus did not ride in with much military might, grand horses and chariots, instead Jesus rode into the city on the back of an ass (donkey) with no one but his companions.
Now, the most telling part of this whole drama is what the Jews were shouting when Jesus was entering; “Hosanna to the King of Kings”. As my friend, Rev. Jim Keat, points out in the video below, “Hosanna” means “save us” or “liberate us”. The Jewish people present were begging for a revolution! However, they did not realize that they were asking for a revolution from a man who was serious about overthrowing the empire through nonviolent subversion rather than military might.
Jesus rides in to answer the cries of the people but He answers in a way that they did not want. The Jewish people wanted a violent overthrow with bloodshed and revenge, but Jesus came to subvert, to overthrow through radical, all-inclusive, non-retalitory, sacrificial love that is as vast as all four of the world’s oceans. This subversive reality is why Jesus was ultimately killed because He was a counter-cultural, nonviolent, anointed messenger of shalom….peace; not a peace of meek and mildness, but a peace that dares to dive into the commotion of rebellion and revolution. Jesus was a peacemaker who showed up, stood in between the oppressed the and oppressor, provoking us to draw deep on our better selves.
Today, Jesus enters the drama of revolution that ultimately ends with all the empire thrusting every ounce of it’s might down upon Jesus and His followers, then everything looking like it is finished and all hope for a just world has been thwarted, but THEN…the EXPLOSIVE power of RESURRECTION takes place!
But, I’m getting ahead of myself, so let us back up a bit and talk more about “hosanna”.
Ok. So, let me be real with you for a hot second…today, i am very frustrated. I am tired, my body hurts, and I can not even pretend that I have the capacity to push through till the end of the day. Frankly, my ability to care is very low and I am legit in a grumpy mood. And yet, all of this is awkwardly appropriate for today.
As pointed out earlier, the word hosanna means “save us” or “liberate us”. This is my cry today. Even though, I have been well trained in the diverse tactics of nonviolent movement building, I have extensively studied the spirituality of nonviolence (what Hindus call ahimsa), I do have days where I pray, “Lord, just come back and blow all this shit up. We do not deserve this beautiful gift of life, just end it all”. Sometimes it is easier to believe in a violent god who throws everyone who does not meet the standard, into a fiery pit that burns eternally, but that is not what we get today. Yet still, we are invited to take a deep breath, and enter into the drama.
The people were protesting, crying out for help, and Jesus heard them and today, we are still crying out just with a different cry. We are crying out for salvation from COVID-19, from a government who daily shows that we are not a priority, from leadership who in one breath proclaim that they are “pro-life” but then in the next breath declare that the elders of our society should be willing to die for the economy…literally putting money above the value of life, from families who hate us for being different, from depression or anxiety, etc etc etc.
I feel like one of the crowd shouting with every fiber of my being, “save us”, put an end to this lunacy and calm the storms. But if we look at the story further, we can only move from hosanna to alleluia, by entering into the story and getting involved in the drama. Actually, last week in the story of raising Lazarus from the dead, an interesting part of that story is that Jesus was not the one who untied Lazarus from the bandages that covered his body…the people unbound him. They owned their collective liberation and unbound their brother in the struggle because they got involved in the drama.
So, get involved in the story and drama. Control the narrative and see how you are being invited to give up your life for the salvation of others. The most obvious way we are all (or most of us) doing this is by staying home. But it does not stop there.
As we prepare for things to get worse with this virus, I want to encourage you to hold on and believe that your cries for help are being heard and liberation is coming but first, we gotta shout, protest, sound the alarm, then go through the drama so that we can get to the glorious triumph of resurrection.
If you need spiritual, pastoral, and emotional support this week, feel free to reach out to me via email, Facebook, or my office number; 774-327-3138
This is my benediction for you as we enter into the drama of Holy Week:
May you know you are heard.
May you know you are seen.
May you know that you WILL be saved.
We know the end of the story and IT IS GLORY!
But first, you have to show up and speak up.
This Thursday is Holy (Maundy) Thursday, I will be hosting a zoom service for the “washing of hands” and all of you are invited to attend. A special issue will go out with all the necessary info for logging in, etc.
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You are sacred.
Peace and Good things,
+Rev. Jerry
The People’s Priest