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Worship Lead: Rev. Cheryl Goode
Liturgist: Alex Selikoff
Scripture: Luke 19:28-40 & Psalm 31:9-16
COMMUNION will be offered to all.

There is a deeper paradox woven into this day that we could bring to light. The reality is on this day, those who lined the street and laid down their garments and waved their branches and shouted got it right. They shouted, as we know though the Luke text doesn’t record it, “Hosanna.” That had become, as Luke claims, a statement of praise, a celebration of the one who comes. But it also has a translation: “Save us.” That’s what the word “Hosanna” means. “Save us.” So, on that day, the crowd got it right. But they probably didn’t even know it. That’s an assumption, admittedly. We don’t know what was in their minds and hearts on that day. But reading on in the story, we recognize that if, even in the moment, they knew what they were saying, it certainly didn’t last long. To go from “Hosanna” to “Crucify him” seems a long journey.

But maybe it isn’t a long journey. Within each of us is the capacity to claim Christ and reject him almost at the same time. Palm/Passion Sunday is about the celebration and acknowledgement of the one who comes in the name of the Lord. It is a time for declaration of faith and reaffirmation and recommitment to discipleship as we follow Christ with our whole lives. But it is also a time of confession, of acknowledging that we don’t live up to the commitments we have made in the past and that our declarations with our lips seem far from the actions of our lives.

Through it all, however, is the theme that the one who comes will come. No matter how many times we mess up, the Savior still comes, riding into the heart of our city with an offer of redemption, a promise of salvation. And we can rejoice in that.

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