Whiteboard: Palm/Passion Sunday

The long journey of Lent is nearly complete. This coming Sunday will mark the beginning of Holy Week and worship will be marked by the discord at its center. You can even see it in the name of the Worship Service: Palm/Passion Sunday. It isn't often that a "/" makes it into Liturgical Calendar, but this week it does.

In truth, it will probably feel like two worship services, which is generally something you want to avoid but not this coming Sunday. You see, that discordant note is part of the point really.

The first part of the service will be dedicated to Christ's Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. For six weeks now our Gospel readings have been laden with geographic clues, slight references to ancient cities or towns that are easy to skip over and read past. But those geographic references are important because they underline an important theological theme -- Each week during Lent we have drawn closer and closer to Jerusalem. "Jerusalem, O Jerusalem. Where the prophets go to die." Strangely, Jerusalem is where Christ is greeted with a huge celebratory party complete with palm fronds, a donkey ride, and ecstatic shouts of "Hosanna! Hail the Messiah!" It is a wonderful scene...but it is only the first step in this Sunday's worship service.

You see, if you are a Sunday-only kinda worshiper (and most folks are, if even that much) then all you get during Holy Week is a big triumphant celebration (Palm Sunday) followed by an even bigger triumphant celebration that probably has brass instruments accompanying the choir (Easter Sunday). So for the average (even active) churchgoer you miss the entire crucifixion. And in that sense, you miss the power of the resurrection. After all, you can't really celebrate resurrection -- God's power triumphing over the death dealing ways of the world -- if you skip over the whole death thing.

Which is why we have a second part of our worship service this coming Sunday. It is why we have a "/" in the liturgical title. It is where the "Passion" part of Palm/Passion Sunday comes in.

We'll spend the second half of the service retelling the story of Christ's betrayal, sham of a trial, abandonment, humiliation, crucifixion, and death. If it sounds like a sharp U-turn to make in the worship service, well, it is. And I've always been of the opinion that it should be. It is part of the point of the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem that it is so suddenly and so sharply cast aside in the face of the cross. We'll experience that whiplash induced shift in the worship service this Sunday...but I don't want to say too much about how we'll do it for fear of spoiling the surprise.

All of that is to explain this week's Whiteboard picture which seeks to capture both the celebratory nature of Palm Sunday as well as the solemnity of the Passion Story. The shadow of the cross lingers behind the palm frond on Palm/Passion Sunday.

I hope to see you in church this Sunday, next Sunday, and on Thursday too for our Maundy Thursday worship service at 7PM following our Potluck Dinner at 6PM.

{ps My thanks to Barry for buying me a set of more colorful Whiteboard markers. He's usually the first one to see my Whiteboard creations...and make fun of them! Thanks for the new markers, Barry.}