Shout Truth! Palm Sunday, March 20, 2016 Readings: Luke 19: 28-40; The Old Lady and the Cave (from Folktales from Around the World) retold by Jane Yolen At the beginning of Luke s gospel, Luke s good news, the angels chant to the shepherds: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom God favors! and here, as the end of the story draws near, Jesus followers and even the stones take up the song: Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven! This it seems is the praise song of creation, the song of life, the song of truth. But it is often hard to sing - and hard to hear. Look how the Pharisees wanted to silence the crowd. Tell your followers to be quiet, they warn Jesus. In Luke s gospel the Pharisees aren t bad guys as we sometimes think of them. They listen to Jesus. They even engage in discussion with him. But they are not risk takers. They do not want to disturb the powers that be. They do not want to get hurt. They may not be happy about the compromises the Jewish leaders have reached with the occupying Roman forces, compromises which allow them to worship in their own ways but keep them servants of the Roman system, but what can they do? Should anyone expect them to risk reputation, property, or safety? What good would that do anyway? Isn t it better to make the best of the situation? they reason. So, in my head, I don t hear their warning to Jesus as coming from anger. They want to protect this charismatic teacher. What good will this parody of a royal entry do him or them? Perhaps they might have even quoted to Jesus or themselves the saying of Demosthenes, even then an ancient proverb, He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day. Only there wasn t much fighting involved in their experience. One way of reading these biblical stories is to see them as parables for our lives, where we may take on each of the characters or roles in our own lives. In this story we have the roles of Jesus, of his followers, and of the Pharisees. Which role speaks to you? Is there a way in which Jesus story is part of your life risking all for the sake of truth and right? Could you see yourself as one of his followers glimpsing the truth, taking some risks for it, but not fully turning your life over to it, at least not yet? Or would you place yourself among the Pharisees, not 1
wanting to sit with the truth, seeing it as an ugly hag, not a beautiful young woman? For as the story of the man seeking truth illustrates, it takes courage and devotion to sit with Truth. What did you make of the end of the story? Did it throw you when the ancient hag told the man to tell others that she was young and beautiful? Can truth lie? Is truth blind? That s what I was wondering at first, but as I imagined the man s experience, staying there for a year and a day, moving beyond his initial fear and revulsion, learning so much that he only feels gratitude, I pictured his view of Truth changing. Perhaps by the time he left, he knew that Truth was beautiful and young, timeless, but that the only way to come to see that is to sit and stay. Jesus was one who had the courage to sit with Truth. Perhaps he climbed to her cave for the first time during the forty days he spent wrestling with his destiny in the desert. Perhaps he began to sit with Truth even earlier, as he absorbed the stories and teachings of Scripture, and took to heart the words of the prophets, as when Isaiah spoke for God, This is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Whenever it began, Truth s beauty must have taken root at the core of his being, since Jesus followed Truth through the streets of Jerusalem, to the halls of Pilate, and all the way to the cross. So it must have been too for Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, who was assassinated as he concluded his homily on 36 years ago this week. In that final message, he told the congregation, We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us. The biblical call to care for the poor, to have justice roll down like waters, was so rooted in him, that even when other Catholic clergy asked him to stop speaking out against the government s abuses and corruption, he refused. He said, The prophetic mission is a duty of God s people. So, when I am told in a somewhat mocking tone that I think I am a prophet, I reply: God be praised! You ought to be one too. But from where do we get the courage? As Donna asked the children, how do we get what we need to take a stand for truth? In his book Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times, Eyal Press looks at people who said no to the evils of their society, what it took to get them to stand up and step out of line, and where they drew their courage and inspiration. What he learned from the examples he studied and the people he interviewed, is that these people aren t out of the ordinary or radical in their views. They tend to have accepted the values of their 2
systems so deeply that they just assume that there is nothing to do but stand up for them, even when that means going against their government or their society. Just as Jesus and Romero had internalized the biblical injunction to care for the least, so in the stories Press tells: during World War II, a Swiss Police Captain back-dated papers to allow Jewish refugees to enter neutral Switzerland after the Swiss government had closed its borders, because he believed that Switzerland was the enlightened nation it claimed to be, a sanctuary whose citizens had always extended a welcoming hand to castoffs from more troubled lands; in Serbia in 1991 a Serb saved Croatians from a concentration camp because, he said simply, he had been raised by his parents to love people regardless of nationality; and a Texas stock broker who had grown up in El Salvador believed so strongly that the American financial industry was so well regulated that it couldn t possibly suffer from corruption like she d known in her birth country, that she notified the Securities and Exchange Commission when she became suspicious about the products her company was pressuring her to sell to her clients. In addition to internalizing core beliefs, Press found that these heroes all had direct and sympathetic contact with the people they stood up for, whether Jewish refugees, Croat neighbors, or financial clients, and that all of them had at least one other person who supported them in the actions they took. Ideals, connection, community this is what enables people to stand up for their beliefs and on behalf of others. So, how may we trust, connect, and support one another so that we can be like, perhaps not Jesus, but his followers? For in Luke s version, the crowd isn t made up of fickle people who turn out for a parade and then turn out as well before Pilate to demand that Jesus be crucified. In Luke s gospel, the people who cheer and wave their palms for Jesus are disciples and followers. They may not understand Jesus, but they believe in him, and though many of them ran away in fear when he was brought in for trial, after his death they re-gathered, and formed communities to live out his message of love and justice. They not only took care of fellow believers, but also of the poor, widows, and orphans regardless of their belief. Some even went on to follow Jesus all the way to their own trials and crosses. How can we follow them? Community, ideals, and connection that s what these stories tell us we need to take our own stands for the needs of the people. Where are you called to step out? How might this change your life? Where are we as a church called to step out? How might this change our church? How might this change our world? How may we in our turn take up the chant of truth and justice, the song which reverberates from the stones to the angels, from the beginning of time, through our own time, and beyond? - Pamela M. Barz 3
Readings Luke 19: 28-40 (Laughing Bird Liturgy paraphrase) Jesus and his followers pushed on, heading up towards Jerusalem. Their last stop was just outside the twin townships of Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of his followers into the township, saying, Just as you get into the main street you ll see a young donkey tied up to a fence. It is an awkward looking thing and has not yet even been ridden. Collect it and bring it to me, and if anyone asks you what you think you re doing with it, just tell them the boss needs it. So the two of them headed into the township, and sure enough, there was the donkey tied to the fence, just as Jesus had said. As they began to lead it off, its owner appeared and said, Hey, what do you think you re doing with my donkey? They replied, The boss needs it. They brought it to Jesus and made an improvised saddle from items of spare clothing. Jesus got on and began riding slowly up the road to Jerusalem. As he approached, people began giving him the red-carpet treatment, spreading their coats on the road before him and cheering as he passed. As he rode the final stretch from the Mount of Olives, the swelling crowd of his followers were shouting and singing at the top of their voices, praising God for all the remarkable actions they had witnessed in Jesus company. A loud chant began: God s blessing is on the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!! Some religious teachers from the Pharisee party witnessed this from the crowd and confronted Jesus: Teacher, get your students back under control! But Jesus answered, The fact is, if I shut them up, the stones in the road would take up the chant! --------------- The Old Lady and the Cave (from Folktales from Around the World) retold by Jane Yolen There was once a man who was successful in all things. He had a fine wife, a loving family, and a craft for which he was justly famous. But still he was not happy. I want to know Truth, he said to his wife. 4
Then you should seek her, she replied. So the man put his house and all his worldly goods in his wife s name (she being adamant on that point) and went out on the road as a beggar after Truth. He searched up the hills and down in the valleys for her. He went into small villages and large towns; into the forests and along the coasts of the great wide sea; into dark, grim wastes and lush meadows pied with flowers. He looked for days and for weeks and for months. And then one day, atop a high mountain, in a small cave, he found her. Truth was a wizened old woman with but a single tooth left in her head. Her hair hung down onto her shoulders in lank, greasy strands. The skin on her face was the brown of old parchment and was dry, stretched over prominent bones. But when she signaled to him with a hand crabbed with age, her voice was low and lyrical and pure and it was then that he knew he had found Truth. He stayed a year and a day with her and learned all that she had to teach. And when the year and a day was up, he stood at the mouth of the cave ready to leave for home. My Lady, Truth, he said, you have taught me so much and I would do something for you before I leave. Is there anything you wish? Truth put her head to one side and considered. Then she raised an ancient finger. When you speak of me, she said, tell them I am young and beautiful. 5