Two
Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday April 13, 2025 – Palm Sunday
Scripture: Luke 19:28-40
I have three stories that I want to share with you this morning.
For story number one, I invite you to cast your mind back to January 2017. You might recall that our neighbours to the
south had had a… significant… election two months previously. There was an air of uncertainty with an
undercurrent of fear, especially for anyone who was marginalized. There was worry that instead of moving
towards greater equality for all people, that some rights that had been fought
hard for were going to be revoked.
All of this is sounding very familiar in 2025, 8 years later, but let’s stay in
the past for now.
My story is not about the election itself, but about the response to that
election. You might recall that in
January 2017, women gathered in Washington DC.
They gathered not just from the city itself, not just from the states
surrounding Washington, but from all across the country and even some from
Canada. They traveled by the busload, by train, by car. The subways were packed that day as the women
gathered.
All of this is sounding very familiar in 2025, 8 years later. Last weekend, millions of people gathering in
thousands of locations, with more gatherings planned for next weekend. But it will take some time to know the full
extent of what is going on in the Resistance right now, so let’s stay in the past.
In 2017, the marchers wore distinctive pink hats with cat ears, made out of
fleece, out of felt, knitted, sewn, and crocheted. And there, in the city that inaugurates
presidents, in the city that receives world leaders on a regular basis, there
in that city, the women filled the streets.
They gathered to remind the people in power that all people are
precious, all people are valued – all people of all genders and gender identities,
and not just the men who tend to occupy the seats of power in our world today.
At the Women’s March on Washington, almost half a million people showed up, but
the march wasn’t limited to Washington. In cities around the world, women
gathered to say “We won’t be forgotten.” It’s estimated that 7 million women
marched that day.
They carried a message about women’s rights, about reforming immigration
systems, about LGBTQ+ rights, about racial justice, about workers’ rights,
about environmental rights. 7 million
people gathered that day to speak truth to power, saying: “We won’t let you oppress us any longer.”
For story number 2, I invite you to think a little bit closer to home, both in
terms of time and geography. Picture a
sunny Saturday afternoon in early August in uptown Saint John. Picture several hundred people gathered for a
parade – some with floats, some driving vehicles, some walking. Rainbows of all sorts are everywhere you
turn, because this is the annual Pride Parade.
The route begins at the old Loyalist Burial grounds; it winds around Kings
Square and down King Street; then it continues along Water Street until it gets
to the Container Village. Music is
playing from different groups and floats; flags are being waved, not just
rainbow flags but all of the different pride flags are present. People are laughing, hugs are being shared,
and the crowds that line the street are cheering as we walk past them. There is so much joy in the air that it
almost spills over into tears.
This is a parade that proclaims that love always wins. Love always wins. Those of us walking as the church remind the
crowds that God is proud of ALL of Their children, that ALL people are created
in God’s image. There is so much joy and
so much love in the streets of the city that day.
And yet, despite all of the joy, despite all of the love, there is still an
undercurrent that reminds everyone present of why we need to have Pride
Parades. Pride Parades are still
necessary because there are people and groups in our world who would try to
deny the love that this parade proclaims.
There are people in the world who would try to take away rights from
queer and trans folx. This parade is
necessary to make sure that the voice of love will always drown out the voices
of hatred and oppression.
And there is always the fear that this might be the year that someone tries to
stop the parade using violence.
Yet the parade continues, because love ALWAYS wins.
For story number 3, you’re going to have to use your sacred imagination a
little bit more, because this story takes place before any of us were
born. This story is set in the city of
Jerusalem, some 2000 years ago, just before the celebration of Passover.
Jerusalem, like Washington DC, is familiar with parades of power – it is
familiar with visiting dignitaries and military leaders. The people in power of this time and place
tend to parade through the streets of Jerusalem, not in limos with darkened
windows, but rather on war horses cloaked in the finest cloth and bedecked with
jewels.
Now, in the days before one of the major annual festivals, the city streets are
crowded with pilgrims from all around the known world, come to celebrate their
ancestors’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt, come to celebrate the time when
the angel of death passed over their homes, sparing their children, come to
celebrate this Passover in the temple which was the very home of
God-whose-name-is-Holy.
And yet there is an undercurrent of tension because Jerusalem is not an
independent city, and Ancient Israel was not an independent country. It was part of the Roman Empire, and the
emperor in Rome ruled over the land through a series of governors like Pilate
and puppet kings like Herod.
The Roman Empire, like every empire, tended to govern through fear – you towed
the line because you were afraid to do otherwise. Treason against Rome was punished by nailing
the traitor to a cross and leaving them there to die.
More echoes of 2025?
The city has swelled to 3 or 4 times its usual size as people from every nation
have gathered to celebrate the Passover celebration of liberation; and into
this city enters a parade. This one
doesn’t have a war horse or jewels.
Instead, the person at the heart of this parade is riding a donkey, a
comic sight as he has to hold his legs up so that his feet don’t drag on the
ground. Instead of fancy garments, the
people gathered have laid their ordinary cloaks on the ground to pave the path
for the one they are celebrating. Rather
than gold and jewels, they are waving branches that they cut off nearby
trees. And instead of trumpets
announcing the arrival, the people sing a psalm of praise:
Hosanna! Save us!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord!
The message of this parade is not one that announces a military victory. This isn’t a parade to celebrate the empire
or to honour the emperor. Instead, this
is a parade that honours a person who said “blessed are the meek.” This is a parade that raises up a person who
taught that the most important things that a person should do are to love God
with your whole being, and to love your neighbour as yourself. This is a parade that celebrates a person who
offered healing and liberation to anyone who was oppressed.
And as the people dared to cheer on the one who proclaims the topsy-turvy
world, the ones with the power try to silence their voices. “Shush.
You don’t want Rome to catch wind of this kingdom. That kind of treason
leads to a cross.” But the one riding
the donkey says, “They have to cry out.
They have to cry out for God’s world of peace and glory. They have to use their voices to cry out for
God’s justice. And even if these people
were silent, the very stones would take up the song.”
All of us who are here today – we have dared to join this parade. We have dared to add our voices to the shouts
of “Hosanna!” We have chosen to join in
the parade that celebrates humility and love and liberation, rather than
joining the parade on the other side of town that celebrates power and might.
And the question that I invite you to ponder today is: Why have you joined this
parade?
“Palm Sunday”
by Frank Wesley
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