Musings Along Lifes Way: Palm Sunday

40 Some of the people in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’ Luke 19:40

When something joyous happens in our lives, when the miraculous breaks through ... say the birth of a child or grandchild, or perhaps the joy of standing beneath a flowering plum tree as the spring wind sends her petals flying...when the miraculous breaks through, there is no containing it. This is what happened on Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, the day we celebrate as Palm Sunday. Something joyous was afoot -- God's Word made flesh in Jesus was coming to town. Love was about, entering the city, entering human lives, transforming hearts as love made love's way through city streets.

As often happens there were those who want to contain the joy, hold back the emotion, control others. They said to the joyous, "Be quiet." Then love incarnate, Jesus, love love's self, spoke up -- "if they were quiet, the stones themselves would shout out loud." There is no containing love's way in the world. Love will be done, joy made manifest. Palm Sunday is an invitation to be caught up in the joyous, to sing hosanna and to throw off our coats with abandon. Palm Sunday is an invitation to briefly touch the joy, that despite the sorrow of Holy Week, will prevail. With Palm Sunday we are invited to enter Jerusalem, to walk the city streets and discover for ourselves to the love with will not let us go, the love that can endure all things and emerge victorious.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday. I look forward to seeing you in church. David