Palm Sunday - 4/17/11 Grace St. Paul s With the myriad images that are swimming through your head right now on this schizophrenic morning, I hesitate adding another. But if your mind can handle it, I ask you to take a close look at this photo. I would like you to especially study the people. What can we tell about them and at about what is going on by their appearance? First, look at their clothes. They are dressed in the old, worn attire of working folk. Next, look at how they have organized themselves. Their manner of walking is not structured, but very informal. There are not in rows or in any symmetrical pattern, but in casual groups. We might surmise by their hunched gait, that they are also quite tired. When I look at them, I can almost see the weight of the world resting on their exhausted shoulders. This photo was taken during the Voting Rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. It is always referred to as a march, but as we can see, this is a misnomer. The participators are not marching at all. They are walking. 1
Some of you may remember what happened when these walkers got as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They were met by a different group of people. This group looked very different. Their clothes were not ragged or worn at all. All of them were dressed in matching, spiffy uniforms. Each was decorated with the accouterments of battle, including guns, clubs and various other weapons. They did not appear tired. And though they were NOT called marchers, they were definitely marching, in neatly ordered rows, with a symmetry that brought to mind the precision of a marching band. When you envision the parade that Jesus leads today, the one that we just reenacted outside, discard the marching band image and think of this picture. Imagine an unorganized group of working class folk walking haphazardly on a back road outside Jerusalem. Think of coats like the ones worn in this photo, and those hard working people tossing them down on the ground in front of Jesus. Think of those people picking up dead palm fronds that are lying on the ground and waving them like flags, because... it was all they had to wave. Think Selma, Alabama, 1965 and you will have a good image of what was going on today 2000 years ago. A small group of blue collar people, 2
tired to the bone, but full of optimism that what they were doing was going to make a difference, full of hope that because of their actions, things were going to change. Today, like those people in Selma, the followers of Jesus believe that their walk represented a new world order and an end to the oppression and violence they had suffered for so many years. While this is happening, there is another parade occurring on the right side of the tracks in Jerusalem. This one looks nothing like the motley crew of Jesus followers on their broken down walk. Instead, it looks like the marchers the people in Selma encountered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It was a grand military parade, with all the pomp and circumstance imaginable. Rows upon rows of regimented military, and all their wartime weapons, with the leaders sitting on the backs of magnificent war horses. That parade was bringing one Pontius Pilate to town for the feast of Passover. It, like the military group in Alabama, was meant to shock and awe. It was meant to scare the living daylights out of any group who thought of challenging Rome in any way. 3
The Jesus parade is purposely meant to be the polar opposite of the Pilate parade. It, in many ways, symbolizes the entire ministry of Jesus. It suggests a new form of leadership and a new way of living. A leader who rides an ass instead of a war horse suggests the kind of servant leader Jesus has spent his life being. We can create a world, the Jesus parade is saying, where leaders do not wield their power over others. It is about creating a community of equals, a community that is run on compassion, companionship and love. It is a vision of a world where people are never shocked and awed, but where every person is respected and honored, and the dignity of each individual becomes the priority. The Jesus parade makes the radical assertion that there is a different kind of power, a power that works through the notion of non-violence. The Palm Sunday and the Selma walks are always made up of small minorities of what appears to be powerless people. There are at least two reasons for this. First, the notion of taking a non-violent approach with those who have persecuted you is not very satisfying. The idea of a Messiah who is not going to smite those who have hurt you so deeply, is all but impossible to swallow. Second, you just heard 4
where the Palm Sunday walk leads. Who wants to join a parade that ends with you on a cross? Those of you who know your history, or who remember, know how that parade from Selma to Montgomery went too. That military group met the walkers on what is now called Bloody Sunday. They beat them to within an inch of their lives with clubs and hurled tear gas at them until they had disbursed. Who wants to follow that example? How exactly is that retribution for all the injustices we have faced? There are many who will tell you that following Jesus and being a Christian is simple. They say that Jesus died for you this coming Friday and because of that your life will be peaches and cream if you accept him as your Lord and Savior. But beloved, that is not what Jesus said. Through the lesson of the Palm Sunday walk, we know darn well why Jesus was killed and what we must do as a result. In the words of an African proverb, the lesson is this; When you pray, move your feet. That is what Jesus is doing today. He is teaching us how to pray. We are called to start walking in a way that satirizes the marches of the shock and awe crowd. We are called to stand up in the 5
face of those who continue to oppress, while at the same time never lifting a finger against them. The people in Selma understood Palm Sunday as well as anyone. When they prayed, they moved their feet. Like Jesus, it also led them to immediate pain and suffering. So why did they do it? Why did Jesus do it? And why should any of us walk down the road of nonviolence when we too know the result? The answer is and always will be that Good Friday is not the end of the story. The power brokers did not win then and they didn t win in Selma either. Two days after that aborted walk, a symbolic walk was made to that bridge. Then a third, full scale march from Selma to the capital in Montgomery happened. 3200 walkers walked 12 miles a day sleeping in the fields night. By the time they arrived in Montgomery, there were 25,000 of them. And because of their courage, because they were willing to pray with their feet like Jesus, resurrection happened. Less than five months later, President Johnson would sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the beginning of the end of oppression of African Americans finally arrived. 6
Don t let someone trick you into believing that Christianity is easy. Real Christianity is always difficult and always dangerous. But if we can just keep walking in the RIGHT parade, if we can stay on the path of nonviolence in the face of terrible oppression and injustice, we can make next Sunday happen. It is never easy, and it will never be popular, but it is the only way to dignity, the only way to bring about the realm of God on earth, the only way to create the beloved community. As we begin our walk into Holy Week, let us begin by being sure we are in the right parade. You will recognize it. It is the one with the people that look just like that rag-tag bunch on Palm Sunday or Bloody Sunday. Once there, let us remember what Jesus teaches in the midst of those waving palms. When you pray, move your feet. Amen. 7