Triumph and Rejection, Both - 25 March 2018 -Sunday of the Passion / Palm Sunday

We know that Jesus was not simply riding in to Jerusalem to celebrate his messianic leadership.

We know that Jesus was riding in to betrayal and death.

We know that the reality of the reign of Christ would only be fulfilled on the morning of resurrection.

We know that the reign of God cannot be a reality in our world as long as the structures of our society continue to promote fear and hatred and violence.

We know that Christ's life and death and resurrection will continue to mock our society's values until we value human life the way God values it.

We know the triumphal entry into Jerusalem will continue to be an ironic parade until justice flows down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

We know Palm Sunday will continue to be a paradox of meaning and symbol until violence and warfare and power cease to rule our world, and in their place reigns the power of love. –– John H. Barden

Mark 14:1––15:47 or Mark 15:1-39 [40-47]

Having grown accustomed to gospel lessons as short as a few verses and rarely longer than a single chapter, this one Sunday (and Good Friday) we place an extended lesson at the heart of the liturgy. In one way, the sheer length implies the heft and gravity of the day.

. . . Make the Passion itself part of your homily. . . well proclaimed—with more than one reader if possible. Help the readers highlight details through good vocal inflection, pauses, and pronunciation. Keep the congregation involved! Invite them to hold palm branches aloft during the Passion according to centuries old customs.

Advise people clearly on when to stand and provide for standing. . . at least for the section from the sentencing to death to the crucifixion. Liturgical churches will have known the practice of a strong, silent pause for meditation. . . –– Jeffrey VanderWilt

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Hebrew Bible scholars would warn us to carefully interpret these passages with reference to Israel in exile and the postexilic teachings of Third Isaiah. The difficulty with these cautions is that the most ancient strata of Christian oral traditions entirely depend on the direct application of these passages to the interpretation of the meaning, purpose, and consequences of the death of Jesus. It is not that Jesus does not fulfill biblical prophecy in his death, but it is problematic from within the constraints of a historical-critical method, and challenges may emerge within the sphere of Jewish-Christian dialogue. –– Jeffrey VanderWilt

Philippians 2:5-11

The nature and spiritual actions of Christ form the basis for Christians to know and do the right things. The key phrase is “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” [linking] the exhortation. . . to the nature of Jesus as one who could have been equal to God, but “emptied himself.” The Greek concept is kenosis . . . that Jesus could have escaped death yet was “obedient to the point of death.” “Taking the form of a slave” uses the term pais, which may mean slave, servant, or young man. –– Jeffrey VanderWilt

John H. Barden, a Presbyterian pastor, received the Angell Award in 2005 from the Presbyterian Writers’ Guild for his book of original folktales, ‘Postle Jack Tales (KiwE Publishing, 2004).

Jeffery VanderWilt, author of Communion with Non-Catholic Christians (Collegville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003) teaches at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Southern California.

Homily Service 39, no. 5 (2006): 9-17

The Mind of Christ –– Palm/Passion Sunday, Year A –– 9 April 2017

This is a day for careful reading of the scripture. Bring it to life. Invite a variety of voices. But even an excellent reading does not make a sermon unnecessary. The text resides in a realm that needs, still, to be brought “home.” How does this astonishing story resound in our lives? Tell us that. What does it mean to have the “mind of Christ”?

This day is supreme paradox. Hosanna to the victorious king! Riding on a donkey. Then arrested, tried, and executed. Hosanna!

Some Christians want the imagery of our stories to be clean, uncomplicated, and one-dimensional. This day is not that. Instead, we are invited by the Palms and Passion put together that the God we worship is strong enough to be weak enough for truth. We are to see that power comes from vulnerability, that victory is assured where it is not expected or understood. This is not a God who comes to us in a form we comprehend easily. For that kind of understanding, we need paradox.

Here, at the beginning of Holy Week, the center of our lives, we see the whole story, so that on Maundy Thursday we can understand why we are called to wash each other’s feet. On Good Friday we are called to pay the greatest honor to Jesus’ cross – without which no resurrection could occur. On Saturday when we sit Vigil beside the grave and hear the great stories of God’s people, we are shown all the evidence for faith, and then the stone is rolled away.

Matthew 26:14––27:66

When considered from a critical perspective, what the narrative tells us is: the earliest memory of what took place is that both religious and political authorities came together and Jesus was crucified. We find it plausible that the temple priesthood sensed their own fortunes could be threatened if Jesus decided to apply his popularity to an insurrection against Rome. As for Pilate, any suggestion of a possible sedition would have sealed the potential leader's fate. The sign on the cross, “Jesus King of the Jews,” is Rome's understanding of why it crucified Jesus.

Apart from these points, the details of these narratives were fashioned from knowledge of crucifixions, reflections drawn from the psalms and suffering servant songs. Perhaps some memories originated with women who watched from afar, or even with Simon the Cyrenian. . . The story, however, is for Christians a way to enter into a real event that came to be understood as salvific as well as how God has chosen to identify with all human suffering. –– Regina Boisclair

Isaiah 50:4-9a

The servant described in Isaiah is a disciple of God, called by God and instructed by God. The servant faithfully executes his instructions, often suffering because of them. The servant can only endure the suffering because he is confident that God will vindicate him. God is with him, so his confidence is not in his own strength, but is in the LORD. Those who listen to God are susceptible to suffering, not because God endorses it, but because the ways of God are often in contradiction to the ways of the world. –– Jennifer Copeland

Philippians 2:5-11

This Philippians song tells the same story that the gospels tell: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The details are missing, but the essential ingredients are here: descent, humility and servanthood, death on a cross, and exaltation “to the highest place.” It is a song, it is a story, and it was also later one of the resources for Christological debates over the nature and status of Jesus. “Being in very nature God” is how my translation (NIV) reads, while an alternative states, “in the form of God” (NAB). This is followed by “being made in human likeness” (NIV). Although it might seem that a song was a poor source for highly technical philosophical distinctions, this is one of several from which all sides in ancient theological discussions took their proof-texts.

. . . Song let Christians be daring in claims about Jesus. This and other songs opened up ways to use metaphors, to play with speech, and to draw richly on traditional resources from the Hebrew Bible's poetry. . . . Moreover, it is important to stress that the songs of the New Testament were already embedded in Christian worship before they became embedded in texts such as epistles. –– Lucy Bregman

The holy scriptures, in other words, arose from the language and patterns of worship in the early church. Let this Sunday bring the people of God in your life to the Three Days of deepened ritual signification so that the paradox of life from death can become a way of seeing and living.

Lucy Bregman, professor of religion at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, is the author of several books including Beyond Silence and Denial: Death and Dying Reconsidered (WJK, 1999) and Preaching Death (Baylor Univ., 2011).

Jennifer Copeland, a United Methodist ordained minister, served for 16 years as chaplain at Duke University and as director of the Duke Wesley Fellowship. She is currently executive director at North Carolina Council of Churches in Raleigh-Durham.

Regina Boisclair, a Roman Catholic biblical scholar, teaches at Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, Alaska.

Homily Service 41, no. 2 (2008): 68-77.