Palm Sunday Year B 2012

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When my father was a young hippie, in about the year 1972, he traveled to the United States from small Kidlington in Oxfordshire, England to explore and hitchhike.  He was impressed by everything—the big portions at restaurants, the huge Rite Aid ice cream cone, and the expansive spirit of those he met—everything big and American, like groovy apple pie.  He had so many great times meeting different people in his travels up and down California, and he said everyone was so generous—he came and left with almost nothing, but was helped out every step of the way.  And everyone had a hug and an invitation to show up at their place, anytime!  Except they didn’t always really mean it.  He tells me he surprised a couple of folks by showing up, quite caught up in the spirit, and these unwitting American hippies didn’t know what to do!  Had they said mi casa es su casa?  Well they didn’t quite expect him to just swing by!  Awkward….  He loved the wide open USA, and as you know from my story, almost twenty years later our family moved here, but this experience taught him about the love and benefits of the hippie culture as well as its limitations.
Theologian Michael Battle looks at Jesus’ entry in Jerusalem today and says, hey we all kind of fell in love with Jesus in this moment.   We thought this guy, this Messiah with a wry sense of humor—riding a colt and not even a full-blown donkey, I mean, really?—he’s pretty rad.  We’ll rally round this fellow.  Wave some palms his way; help him stage a triumphal entry that looks a lot like a mockery of one.  
Yet we know he’s not just some tired cynic, that his love really is real.  We are human beings, and in our limitations, sometimes we just love in a shallow and superficial way, or sometimes we really love deeply but can only hold it so long in our hearts without losing faith in a person.  Or sometimes we are just tired and it is hard to be as loving as we would like.  But Jesus’ embrace is not a charlatan’s hug, or a loose hippy commitment, but a commitment to us to take it to the cross.  To take it beyond.
So, can we stay with him, not just in this colorful moment of pageantry and play, when the singing of Hosannas is ringing in our ears?  Not just now, but in the quieter and darker moments ahead—can we stay with him?  Can we wash feet with him on Thursday?
Can we remain awake one hour during the night watch Maundy Thursday until Good Friday?  Can we hold on even just to the painful words of the Passion reading we are about to hear today?  Not to take on the weight of this unduly—Jesus has already suffered—but in order to let our own discipleship be just that little bit more costly this week.    Can we embrace Jesus in another and mean it?  Open up our hearts without holding back?  Can we love Jesus through this time he will go through next that we wish was all a big April Fool’s joke?  Will we love beyond the strewn palms, and walk the way of the Cross with Jesus?  Can we?  Will we?  Love him truly?   Amen.

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