For Sunday
Palm Sunday

Collect

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Reading

From Mark 11:1-11

“If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’”

Reflection

This week we celebrate Palm Sunday. You know, the first day we realize the word “celebrate” gets complicated. It’s the day that kicks off Holy Week, what with that crucifixion on Friday and everything. So our feelings about it are often a bit mixed.

The event of this day is specially marked, too. As we often gather, receive palm fronds, and participate in a procession into the nave so that we might join those first disciples as they followed Jesus into Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday also serves to set an interesting tone. It is celebratory and exciting. It also sits under a looming shadow of what is to come.

After a year of physical distancing, concern for our community, and joining together in new ways, we’re arriving at Jerusalem this time with an entirely different set of eyes. This arrival makes the journey of the past year feel exhausting. And no doubt, our eagerness to celebrate and sing hosannas is brimming!

Let us take a moment, then to consider the preparation for the triumphal entry as it may help us prepare. Today, I’m really drawn to this idea that Jesus asks to borrow the colt. I usually read this like its the Blues Brothers who are “on a mission from God.” Which is to say, I hold the image loosely, if at all.

Being away from our physical gathering, our traditions, and all the things I grip tightly this time of year, I’m drawn to this moment of borrowing. Not seizing. This isn’t civil forfeiture. Ownership doesn’t change hands.

Instead, there is an asking and an offering and a sharing and a returning. The colt serves a purpose and brings people in. These strangers are joining the movement by lending their colt to a stranger.

There’s something electric to this moment we usually ignore. Something about being drawn into a movement. Trusting. And knowing that a transformation of the world is right around the corner.