4th Passiontide Palm Sunday 2009, Ashes of Your Life

4^th Passiontide

John August Swanson

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4^th Passiontide, Palm Sunday

April 8, 2009

Matthew 21: 1 – 11

In many parts of the world, Passion Plays are still performed. The drama of Holy Week is enacted, sometimes with whole villages participating.

Holy Week itself is a kind of cosmic drama. Each event, each gesture, each word has deep significance. Christ’s entry into Jerusalem is at the same time the entry into Holy Week.

The scene is staged by Christ himself. As the all-knowing director of the drama, He sends His disciples to fetch the props: two donkeys, a mother and her foal. The prophet Zechariah had already given part of the script:

Hippolyte Flanders

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold your King is coming to you.

He is just and endowed with salvation

Humble and mounted on a donkey

Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey! Zechariah 9:9

The people too, are familiar with the script. And when they see Him entering Jerusalem on a donkey, they know immediately, or think they know, what this means: their new king is entering his capital city, now lying under Roman occupation. And they play their part, shouting in triumph the words of David’s hymn. (Psalm 143)

We, too, in hindsight, know the script. And we know, as does the Director and true Author of the script, that a profound irony is being enacted. The people’s expectation of an earthly king will not be fulfilled. By the end of the week, enraged and disappointed, they will be calling for His execution.

Yet an even deeper current of meaning flows just beneath, and above the surface of the narrative. Something unexpected will happen. After three days His death will be transformed into a kingdom of Life. Rather than an earthly king of a particular people, He will become the regent of all human souls. The shattering of illusions, even death itself, cannot end what is here beginning. In the words of the poet:

William Holman Hunt

Sometimes with

the bones of the black

sticks left when the fire

has gone out

someone has written

something new

in the ashes

of your life.

You are not leaving, you are arriving.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] David Whyte, “The Journey”, in The House of Belonging.

4th Passiontide Palm Sunday 2010, Our Future Humanity

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4^th Passiontide 

Palm Sunday

March 28, 2010

Matthew 21: 1-11

It is amazing how clearly one can sometimes see from far away. The crowds on Palm Sunday see Christ as a prophet. But the prophet Zechariah, seeing him from a distance of five hundred years says:

 'See, your king comes to you,

   gentle and riding on a donkey,

      on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:5)

He sees Christ in three dimensions.

First of all Christ is regal, a king, coming in majesty. This is a description of the radiant spirit of Christ who is Lord and King over all.

He is nonetheless gentle. This is a description of His soul, a soul that has been purified of all egotism.

And He rides on a double beast of burden. This is a picture of His body, both the physical body into which He descended, and the new resurrection body that will be born of it at Easter.

Memmo

And so the far-seeing prophet presents us with a kind of true symbolism, a realistic picture of Christ. He is majestic but gentle. He is willing to ride the beast of burden that is our physical nature in order to become, in the words of John the Baptist, the one who bears the sins of the world. Christ Jesus is the image of the human being made divine.

He is the picture of our future humanity. One day we too will be majestically in command of ourselves. We will be gentle with others. We will be willing to ride and guide the body, which bears the burden of our karma, and the karma of the world.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th Passiontide Palm Sunday 2011, Timeless Life

4^th Passiontide

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4^th Passiontide

Corrine Vonaesch

April 17, 2011

Matthew 21: 1-11

There is a strong element of paradox about today’s reading. On the one hand, in all humility and seriousness, Christ mounts the donkey and rides in stately calm into the city. The donkey is often the symbol for the physical body. In so doing, He is making manifest how He has joined Himself with mankind’s physical nature. He rides the body with both kingly majesty and with gentleness. By taking on an earthly body, He has also agreed to ride along with the body toward mortality, towards death, towards the astounding death of the ever-creative God.

The crowds cheer ecstatically. They are unconscious of the deeper meaning; they greet the entry of the great prophet, the heir to David’s throne. While Christ continues to contract more and more fully into the body of Jesus, the crowds expand, beside themselves with joy.

In a week’s time, the tables will be turned. Death and descent into the underworld will be followed by Christ’s joyous expansion of life into Death’s realm; death will become life; and the people’s unfounded earthly hopes will trickle away in disappointment, disbelief and into hatred.

The point is that things are not always as they first appear. There are false conclusions—here comes our earthly king who will overthrow the Roman occupiers! There are seeming impossibilities: a shameful torture and criminal execution of an innocent man is really an act of redemption, which, to this day, is an act of unimaginable proportions. Death has become filled with life, life’s benevolent companion.

The poet says:

As timely as a river

God's timeless life passes

Into this world. It passes

Through bodies, giving life,

And past them, giving death.

The secret fish leaps up

Into the light and is

Again darkened. The sun

Comes from the dark, it lights

The always passing river,

Shines on the great-branched tree,

And goes. Longing and dark,

We are completely filled

With breath of love, in us

Forever incomplete.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Wendell Berry, in Given

4th Passiontide Palm Sunday 2012, Spirit Sun

4^th Passiontide

Durer

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4^th Passiontide, Palm Sunday

April 1, 2012

Matthew 21: 1-20

Spring—new birth in nature; sunrise; the tender wonders of youth and love. In these our souls rejoice.

Yet these are not the whole story, for every spring has its corresponding autumn. Every sunrise has its sunset. Every birth moves toward inevitably toward a death. Together these create a necessary balance, the whole of reality.

The crowd rejoices as they perceive the sparks scintillating from the God of the Sun. They feel the surge of spring; in an ecstasy of joy, they lay before Him the branches of the sun-tree, the palm.

Yet Christ moves through their wild joy in calm solemnity. He is moving resolutely toward His own autumn; for the sun of his human life is about to set.

Yet His death will reverse the old pattern. His death will bring about a new birth; the birth of a new kind of sun; a sun that shines steadily, a spirit sun that never sets. He rises on a Sunday to become the first born from the realm of the dead. (Rev. 1:5) He is the bright star that shines in the morning. (Rev.22:16)

It is our heart’s deepest desire to find the spirit sun here on earth; to find and follow the light that shines in the darkness in solemn joy; to find the Christ light in our daylight.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2014, Kingdom of the Dead

4^th Passiontide

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

Entry into the City, John August Swanson

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4^th Passiontide, Palm Sunday

April 13, 2014

Matthew 21: 1-11

Kingdom of the Dead, Peter Callesen

We are entering Holy Week. The altar and vestments are black. In this week Christ battles the forces of duality, the forces of black and white. These are the false polarities of either /or, the black and white, yes/no of dead binary thinking. Good or bad. Heaven or Hell. By the end of the week he will enter into the Place of the Skull. He will die, and rise again.

Christ exists in the living world of flow, of change and transformation. He operates in the changing subtleties of the grayscale, in the nuances of color. His opponents ask Him questions designed to entrap Him. He gives them answers from outside of their framework, answers from the flowing world of a greater reality.

Today we still battle with the kind of deadness that our brain-bound intellect so easily falls into. We still tend to manifest one or the other of the ill-making polarities in the way we think, thus closing ourselves off from greater possibilities. Nevertheless, we strain to open our thoughts in reverence. We struggle to warm our hearts in empathy. We strive to act according to the inspiration of our conscience, our higher self.

In those moments when we manage reverence of  thought, when we generate heart’s love, when we do deeds of conscience, in those moments Christ can operate in the world. In such moments Christ is in us.  It is he that thinks in us, suffers in us, dies and rises in us. As Rilke says,

To work with Things in the indescribable

relationship is not too hard for us;

the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,

…

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions ... For the god

wants to know himself in you.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Rainer Maria Rilke, in Ahead of All Parting, ed. and translated by Steven Mitchell

4th Passiontide 2013, Bright Wedge of Freedom

Lorenzetti

4^th Passiontide

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4^th Passiontide,

Hippolyte Flandrin

Palm Sunday

March 24, 2013

Matthew 21: 1-11

Vessels, a jar, a bowl, carry contents. The content is on the inside, and the vessel surrounds it. But there is a complementary gesture; the person carrying the bowl carries both the bowl and its contents.

Christ Jesus enters Jerusalem borne on a beast of burden and its foal. This animal is a symbol of our physical body. The body bears the weight of our destiny and of our deeds. In the picture language of this symbol, Christ is both inside and outside. Christ is the content of the vessel of the body of Jesus; Jesus’ body is the vessel for Christ’s spirit of love. And at the same time, Christ rides above the bodily beast of burden. And he guides it regally toward its own suffering and death, and toward its resurrection.

We too are spiritual beings carried within a bodily vessel. Our body as a beast of destiny’s burden carries us, too, ultimately toward the end of earthly life that we all must approach.

But our hearts can connect with Christ. He can be the content of our souls, the ‘small, bright wedge of freedom in your own heart’,[1] as the poet says. And at the same time, He can be both content and the One carrying the vessel. Our heart’s connection with Christ gives us One who rides with us, guides us. He is riding both the old beast of destiny’s burden, and the young foal which will carry us into the future. He accompanies us on our journey with His strength and love.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] David Whyte, “The Journey”.

3rd Passiontide 2008, The Listening Ear

3^rd Passiontide

John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down, and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

3^rd Passiontide Sunday

March 9, 2008

John 8: 1-12

The light and warmth of the sun can be absorbed or reflected. A dark object absorbs the warmth. A light, polished surface stays cooler. It mirrors light back.

Our minds and hearts can also absorb or reflect. We can listen, absorb, take in. When what we take in enters not just our minds, but our hearts, we can become warm. In so doing, we ourselves are likely to be transformed.

And we can also listen and reflect back. Usually we reflect back our own soul’s reaction. We reflect our mind’s rush to judgment. An immediate mirroring may be for us a kind of self-protection, coming from the soul’s defensive armoring. Being too quick to deflect with our thinking, we bypass absorbing the other into our heart and possibly being transformed.

In this gospel reading, Christ proves Himself to be a human being whose heart and mind work together in a healing way. He does not reject the woman because she breaks the law. He takes her into His great heart, the warmth of His great understanding of the ways of human behavior, of social interaction, of karma. He then reflects back to her not judgment, but gives her the strength of His warm understanding and His encouragement to do better. He absorbs her life into His. He carries her in the light of His life.

The poet Nelly Sachs wrote,

How long have we forgotten to listen!

He planted us once to listen

Like lyme grass by the eternal sea ....

Although we have business

that leads us far

From his light….

We must not sell our ears….

Press, oh press in the day of destruction

The listening ear to the earth,

And you will hear, through your sleep,

You will hear,

How in death

Life begins.[1]

The deeds of each one of us are written into the earth. But the earth has become Christ’s body. He absorbs all of our deeds. He carries us in His great heart. He gives us the encouragement and the strength to do better. We walk in the light of His life.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Nelly Sachs (1891-1970), “How Long Have We Forgotten to Listen!” in Women in Praise of the Sacred, Jane Hirschfield, p.217.