I
don’t believe that the scriptures contain any texts that are less alike than
the two I just read! Both of them describe the city of Jerusalem, but the
descriptions are as different as night and day. In the text from Luke
(19:28-40), we see the city of Jerusalem full of people who are crying out with
joy, welcoming the one who claimed to be the Messiah; while in the text from
Lamentations (1:1, 4, 6), it is as empty and desolate as a graveyard. It’s the
difference between Times Square in New York on New Year’s Eve when it is
crammed with people celebrating, and Times Square at this very moment, when it
is nearly deserted. But it should be filled with people now, shouldn’t it?
After all, today is Palm Sunday! Millions of people should be out waving palm
branches welcoming Jesus into their churches! But they aren’t; and we aren’t
either. All around the world, Christians are intentionally staying away from
one another to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Church sanctuaries are vacant.
European cathedrals echo with emptiness. Even St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the
largest Christian churches in the world, is deserted where Pope Francis prays
alone. How can we celebrate Palm Sunday this way? How can we praise God when we
cannot gather in our holy places to worship?
The
people who lived during the time that the book of Lamentations was written
asked the very same question. The educated people – the priests and the members
of the royal court – had been dragged off into exile in Babylon. The only
temples in Babylon were the ones dedicated to their own gods: Anu, Enlil,
Ninurta, and Inanna. Those who were left living in Judah fared no better. The
Babylonians had ransacked the Temple in Jerusalem, carried away all of its
furnishings, and destroyed much of the city. In Babylon or in Jerusalem, there
was no holy place where God’s people could gather to worship. Our question
today was theirs, too: How can we praise God when we cannot gather in our holy
places to worship?
Even
in the midst of exile, though, God’s people found a way to worship. Where once
they had gathered in the Temple; now they began to gather in their homes. Once
they had believed that God lived only in the Temple; now they came to
understand that God was not confined to a structure or to a city. Once they had
believed that the only acceptable worship was Temple sacrifice; but over time,
they began to realize that other kinds of sacrifices might be even better than
burning an animal on an altar. Was a sacrifice of time acceptable as they
studied the Holy Scriptures? Could they honor God by gathering at home and
reciting the ancient words of worship there? Was God still with them even in
such a strange place and under such difficult circumstances? 2,500 years this
side of the Exile, we know the answers to those questions. God is delighted
when we sacrifice of our time and really listen to what God has tried to tell
us for millennia. God is honored any time that we gather to remember God’s acts
of grace and salvation – even if we gather in front of our computers to worship
through Facebook. God is here with us even if our churches are empty; because
God is not confined to a place, even a holy place. And we don’t need palm
branches to celebrate the coming of Christ on Palm Sunday!
But we
want to wave palm branches today! On this day when we cannot safely gather
together physically in worship, what can our palm branches be? Well, if you are
a doctor or a nurse, your palm branch might be the IV that you put into the
vein of a critically ill patient who needs medication. It honors Jesus by
showing your love for others. If you are a health-care worker, that palm branch
might be the sponge that you use to bathe the aged body of a resident in your
assisted living facility. It honors Jesus by showing your love for others. And
if you are an ordinary Jill or Joe, then your palm branch is the face mask that
you wear whenever you go out for groceries. It honors Jesus by showing your
love for others Waving real palm branches on Palm Sunday is a beautiful way to
honor Christ; but an even more beautiful way to honor him is to use whatever we
have available to show our love for others. Those are our palm branches today.
When we use them, we cry, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the
Lord!” And God just might be more pleased with those palm branches than with
any that come from the florist!
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