Palm Sunday

The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting:

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!

-Matthew 21:9

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, and it will certainly be different than what we are used to. We will not be in a crowd with our palm branches, walking in procession through Central Square. However, I pray that spiritually, we are still together, still able to praise the arrival of Christ as Holy Week begins.

Palm Sunday has been a real both/and day in the church calendar for a while. The liturgy begins with praise and procession, but then quickly turns to the Passion story of Jesus’ suffering and death. It’s always felt a little like whiplash, going from celebration to grief in the blink of an eye. Perhaps this makes Palm Sunday one of the most appropriate of all Sundays for our current time. On Sunday, we’ll worship online together, and we’ll be separated from one another. We’ll find joy in the story of Christ’s entering into the midst of our lives, while remembering that between Palm Sunday and resurrection the stories will be fraught with suffering and loss - just as we are feeling hopeful about the compassion being displayed among us in this anxious time, doing what we can to slow the spread of the corona virus, and we are sadly aware that before this is all over, many people will suffer.

It was at the time of liturgical renewal in the 70’s that the liturgy of the passion was added to the liturgy of the palms on Palm Sunday. Church leaders realized that there were fewer people attending the Holy Week services and experiencing the poignancy of the last supper, the darkness and grief of Good Friday, the dreadful waiting and un-knowing of Holy Saturday. People would praise Jesus on Palm Sunday and then return a week later in their Sunday best to celebrate on Easter with no crucifixion in between. So the framers of our prayer book decided to include the passion on Palm Sunday so that those who missed Holy Week services would not completely miss the important rhythm of the Holy Week cycle.

But this year, none of us will be able to avoid the pathos of Holy Week. It is playing out all around us. The fear, the misuse of power, the suffering of those who are sick or dying. Together as a church - and a whole world! - we are living into the crucifixion in ways that are more than symbolic this year.

The bishop and clergy of NH have been considering how we ought to live into and celebrate Holy Week this year. People are so hungry for Easter, and at the same time, while we are still isolated we’re not feeling very Easter-y. We’re simply notr living in a Sunday best kind of time and it is what it is. So our celebrations this Palm Sunday - and this Holy Week and Easter - will be simple, focussed on God’s story, filled with prayer.

So this Palm Sunday the plan is to focus exclusively on the Liturgy of the Palms. Derek, Kathy, Walt and I will meet this week to plan how we will offer you ways to engage more fully with this Holy season and offer things online that compliment the bishop’s worship services throughout the whole week. You’ll hear more soon.

And then, when the day comes that we will once again come together in our church building to worship, whatever day that is, we will finally celebrate the Easter liturgy with brass, choir, bells and song!

I invite you, between now and this Sunday, to cut some branches from your yard if you can, and bring them inside as a symbol of Christ’s presence in our midst. Consider how God has entered into your life in recent days in ways you may not have expected, so that this Sunday you will have a personal reason to call out Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

The Liturgy. of the Palms readings (gospel and psalm) can be found at the top of this page.