Yes, you heard that right – exclusive PALM-ody, not Psalmody (looking at you, Scottish Covenanters)
Right on the heels of my last article regarding the Palm/Passion Sunday crossover of Church-Feastery and the downgrade of church attendance that in part led to its conception, I want to talk also about something that I think is lost in slamming these two feasts (Passion Sunday, originally on the 5th Sunday in Lent, and Palm Sunday) together into one.
Before I begin though, I do want to make a note of some of the positives to slamming them together, and those can be found in all of my preaching on this day in the church year, and that is essentially this; that in slamming the passion and the triumphal together into one day it has become easier for pastors to preach the the triumphal properly and it has made it easier for their congregations to hear, to receive, and believe what those pastors are preaching. Basically, to say it this way; the triumphal entry is not really about a happy-clappy celebration of Jesus’ Messianic kingship that then ends up turning into a violent revolt and failure. Rather, He comes in with the quoting of and the acting out of Psalm 118, a processional hymn for the feast of tabernacles held in preparation for the passover. And He, as the lamb in Psalm 118, is led up to the horns of the altar by the crowd that leads Him there with branches in hand. The culmination of His task in being crucificiied and dying is actually the successful culmination of that entry. For He has entered Jerusalem (the city that stones the prophets and those who are sent to her, Matt 23, 37) for a purpose. And in the reading of His passion, we see that purpose. So in this way it is actually a good thing that I thank and praise God for. I’m really not so upset about this as people think I am. It really only is that it has become an excuse for churches to abandon the actual days dedicated to the Passion (Maundy Thursday/Good Friday/Holy Saturday) because of its convenient packaging, that is really what grinds the gears of my soul.
But that’s not to say that I don’t have problems with it or preferences for another way, a better way, an older way, or perhaps even a new form of that older way. And that’s where I’ll signal the beginning of my case for “exclusive Palm-ody.” Let’s look at it this way, and this is basically just what I said in the Lenten overview episode with Pr. Roland on Verbum Dei, in that we read the triumphal entry and the passion in the same service, our people end up only hearing the passion. One of the reasons for this is very obviously and very simply that if I tell you in the same breath about Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and then I tell you about how his best friend betrayed Him, how He instituted a sacramental meal where He eat His flesh and blood for our salvation, where He did something consider too low for a slave, and then wept in the garden and sweat blood, and then about the handing over, and the trial , and the brutal crucifixion and death – what do you think your mind is going to be focused upon? What is the meditation naturally going to focus on? And if you’re the preacher, what is your inclination? Antoher reason for this is that in the “Liturgy of the Palms” we only have 2 readings, yet in the “Liturgy of the Passion” we have 4 readings, and the 4th is perhaps the longest individual reading in the whole church year. So in that way also, simply by sheer material covered, the passion is the focus. Yet, this is still Palm Sunday, and Maundy Thursday and Good Friday do still actually exist.
When it comes to these less extreme and less obviously eye catching and soul stirring texts that are also in their own right of great importance, such as Palm Sunday, we find ourselves needing to actually slow down and focus a bit more and draw more out of the text, and do more with the text, and actually use more text(S) (referring to the complimentary OT & Epislte readings). Yet this, for some reason is not at the moment being done with Palm Sunday. But perhaps it should be. Indeed for this and several other reasons I do like the old set up more, with Passion Sunday separate from Palm Sunday. And that I prefer for many reasons. One of the main reasons being that because of their separation we not only get to focus more on the passion than if we removed the Passion reading from the Sunday, but also in that we get to focus also upon the triumphal entry in and of itself. What others have suggested and have done , and there is historical basis for it, is placed the triumphal entry at a different place in the church year (the beginning ) and focused on palm sunday instead upon the passion. but, that old model, tried and true, I would dare t say is the better option for us. If we were to better it, if that were possible, then my bet would be that it could only perhaps be bettered in switching the order. To focus upon the triumphal entry on the 5th sunday in lent, and then to focus upon the passion on what is now Palm Sunday, so that the triumphal entry precedes the lowly passion. The reason this is not done, however, is perhaps for even better reasons though, namely that Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday precede the events at the beginning in the text of Passion Sunday. And as such, this reminds us that the church year and the lectioanry calendar is not meant to simply highlight the most climactic points of the text but also to give us the connective tissue, and to give it in the form of days which comprise seasons and seasons which comprise years (at least in the new 3 year cycle) and years whcih comprise the whole. And that being the way that the church calendar works, Palm Sunday preceding Holy Monday is indeed most proper. This, however, may be circumvented by increasing the amount of text read on passion sunday to include the whole Holy Week narrative from Monday through Saturday. Yet another way it also might be cirucmvented is by removing the passion sunday all-tgoether, and retaining only the raising of Lazarus on the 5th sunday in lent, and Palm Sunday on the preceding sunday. This, to be honest with you, is a move I would support. Any of these are moves I would support, to tell you the truth. Becuasee though there is good to be had, and that has been had, and is being had in this Palm/Passion Sunday mashup, the reality is that even though it has pros, the con of the triumphal entry being drowned out by the passion that we already get throughout Holy Week is just far too heavy to ignore.
So, my brothers. Let us, the church of Christ, again reclaim and re-emphasize His triumphal entry ina way that allows us to preach (albeit perhaps more difficulty) the exclusive Palm-ody of Palm Sunday. And let us hear it and receive it. Let us know it and believe it. Let us proclaim it and do it. Becuae it is part of the church year for a reason. And in it, is a message and a gospel and a theology so profound that it really does deserve its own day.
For Christ that day, this day (in a couple hours) is the very day in which the fulfillment of the passover lamb is ushered into the city of Jerusalem with branches in hand, to be tied to the altar where there He will die for us, that He might rise for us.
This is the Holy Gospel of our Lord.
Let us not let it be un-preached.
