Homily of a Palm
By
Rev. Ann Pittman Zarate
On
Luke 19:28-40
For
First Austin: a baptist community of faith
On
Palm Sunday
April
14, 2019
Two
weeks ago, I decided to make my list of top five albums.
Let’s
be honest. Most everyone in the world can list what song filled the dance hall
when they danced with a crush for the first time… or what album rang through
the headphones as they boarded the flight to deploy… or what blared from the
speakers while cooking breakfast in boxer shorts the day someone called and
told them to turn on the TV, the Twin Towers were falling.
I’ve
been falling. Slowly crumbling as my sense of calling and vocation and passion
are re-examined in light of the heights of unexpected love, new depths of
depression, and the need to keep a tiny human alive.
So, in
true John Cusack form in the classic movie High
Fidelity, I looked into the non-existent camera filming the movie of my
life (dare I say, the camera of self-reflection?), and stated, “top five.”
Top
five albums that tell a story, that changed my life, that brought me… us… full
circle.
One.
Beyonce’s Lemonade. It’s brilliant.
Cathartic. Brave. And we’ve all been there.
Two.
Damien Rice’s O. From opera singers
to Gregorian chants, it’s an immersive masterpiece.
Three.
The Wonderful World of Wynken, Blynken
And Nod (12 Inch Vinyl Record from 1966). It’s the first album I can
remember using my imagination to act out in my parents’ living room.
Four. Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It is a
beautiful narrative that captures the brave American spirit of a community
struggling, and weaves language and music that not only brilliantly plays on
words and themes but tips its hat to the American musical theatre canon.
Five. A Collision Or (3 + 4 = 7) by David
Crowder Band. This 21-song CD was released by the worship leader at the church
I attended in grad school just weeks before our pastor was electrocuted while
performing a baptism in front of 800 members of his congregation, his wife, and
his parents.
Maybe
that’s why this album made it into my top five. Because as the band themselves
said, “little did we know we had made an album that would navigate us so
beautifully through the grief process.” Or maybe because in true great musical
form, it takes us on a journey.
The
music of this album moves us through phases many faith seekers find themselves
experiencing. It starts with the idyllic and exciting praise hymn “Here is Our
King!”, then moves to the painful and paralyzing lament “Do Not Move,” to the
hopeful, anticipatory anthem “Rescue Is Coming,” to the very mysterious and
haunting final violin solo titled “The Lark Ascending.”
Sound
familiar?
Day
One: celebration! a donkey, some palms, a religious holiday and a trip to the
capital.
Day
Two: a meal, a garden, a prayer, a kiss, a betrayal, a government, an
indictment, a death, a darkness…
Day
Three: an empty cave, an angel, a sighting, a closed door, a name, a hand, a
scar, a life, alive.
Day
Four: an ascension, a spirit, a mystery, and a community looking at each other
asking, what now?
It’s
the passion narrative. Only a week, but all the feels are in it. Naive
happiness, heartbreaking death, unexpected resurrection, and finally we find ourselves
in a time of reflection, or real joy: the lark ascending.
Passover
was the celebration of liberation for the Jews; the time death passed over them
and allowed them the freedom to escape to start again. “Where do you think
you’re going?” the Egyptians cried even as they mounted their horses to bring
back their slaves. “To freedom,” the liberated people cried! To the promised
land!
Passover
remembers that question and its answer. But centuries later as the Jews entered
Jerusalem to celebrate their history, the Romans carefully policed the city to
assure it remained a celebration of the past and not a liberation of the
present or future.
But
the Jews were excited. There came Jesus, the latest messiah, entering Jerusalem
for Passover through the Eastern Gate. That was the Gate that Jewish scripture
said a messiah would enter through to deliver the people! Not only that, but
Jesus was riding on a donkey of which the psalmists and prophets also wrote in
connection with a future messiah.
But… a
donkey was a symbol of peace… whereas… a horse was a symbol of war. And I’m
wondering if some of the disciples, some of those following Jesus, weren’t
starting to wonder at Jesus’ chosen mode of transportation. A peaceful entry?
This was Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, occupied by the Romans! Wasn’t the
whole point to overthrow the Romans and re-establish a Jewish state? “Where are
you going with this,” some were beginning to ask.
And by
the next day things were even more convoluted. For supper with his best friends,
he took traditional elements of the holiday time and began assigning them new
meaning. Bread is now body; wine is now blood. And then Judas made the greatest
party foul: he pissed off his host. Jesus announced Judas would betray him, so
Judas took off, and shortly after Jesus left, too. “Where are you going?” the
others asked. “To the garden,” he replied.
After
that, it’s a blur. Depending on which eye witness account you’re reading, Judas
shows back up at the party and kisses the host (and I heard he had 30 pieces of
silver in his pocket), then the Roman soldiers arrive and arrest Jesus. “Where
are you going with him?” the women wail. Peter draws his sword and strikes
first. Everyone bails as the soldiers try to arrest whoever they can get their
hands on. One disciple even runs away buck naked, having lost his toga to a
soldier’s desperate grasp. Naked and scared, he flees, afraid of being
associated with Jesus.
Reminds
me of another woman, naked and scared, facing judgement just a few chapters
earlier: the woman caught in the act of adultery. Thrown before Jesus, the
Pharisees demand justice: the law says capital punishment; stone her. What do
you say?
“You
who are without sin may cast the first stone.”
This
is one of the parables re-told in Godspell
by the actors. In Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak’s version which is,
of course, based on the gospel of Matthew, as Jesus walks away from the woman
caught and freed from the act of adultery, that actor stands up and asks,
“Where are you going? Where are you going?
Can you take me with you?”
Oh
God, look at this world we’ve been thrown into naked and scared. Look at the
people staring down at us as we writhe under their glare. We are desperate,
searching for dignity and hope in a world plagued by war, racism, economic
inequity, sexism, cancer, hate crimes, pornography, pollution, slavery, abuse,
oppression… most of which we caused ourselves.
I
could use a little celebration right now. Wave some palms. Drink some wine. I
could use a savior.
Hey
Jesus…
“Where are you going? Where are you going?
Can you take me with you?”
Amen.
*artwork: Palm Sunday, Painting by Ruth Borges, ruthborges.com
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