Tag: Triumphal entry
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No Kings – A Palm Sunday Reflection
This Saturday, March 28th, is the third No Kings Day protest and Sunday, March 29th, is Palm Sunday, but here’s what I wonder: What if Palm Sunday was the original No Kings protest? What if Jesus, the disciples, and the crowd that follows Jesus are protesting violence, injustice, and imperial power? Instead of protest songs… Read more
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Our Jerusalem Road – A Palm Sunday Sermon On Luke 19:28-40
I have a lot of ambivalence and hesitancy about today. It’s one thing to hear the story of Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem knowing what will happen to him. It’s another thing when we realize it is our story too – and it always is. Let me give you a few examples, some modern… Read more
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The Things That Make For Peace – A Sermon Luke 19:28-40 For Palm Sunday
Did anything strike you as strange about today’s first gospel reading (Luke 19:28-40)? Did it sound like something was missing? It’s the familiar Palm Sunday story about Jesus sending his disciples into the village to retrieve a colt for him to ride to Jerusalem. As he rides along people are “spreading their cloaks on the… Read more
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Working Out Our Life – A Palm Sunday Sermon On Mark 11:1-11
What if Jesus is more like us than we know or want to admit? What if Jesus was always working it out just like we are? What if he struggled with life and death in the same way we do? What if Holy Week for Jesus and for us is a week of figuring it… Read more
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Returning The Colt – A Palm Sunday Sermon On Mark 11:1-11
Mark’s is the only gospel that says Jesus entered the temple, looked around, and left. So why did Jesus leave the temple and go to Bethany? The gospel tells us why. Jesus left the temple “as it was already late” (Mark 11:11). So that got me to wondering. What if this is about something more… Read more
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Will to Power or Will to Life? – A Palm Sunday Sermon on Matthew 21:1-11
Have you ever thought of Jesus’ Palm Sunday procession as a protest march? What if that’s what it really is? What if it is a resistance movement? What if it is highlighting the struggle that takes place in every human heart – the will to power or the will to life? I’ve come to believe… Read more
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The Tearful Entry into Holy Week – A Palm Sunday Sermon on Luke 19:28-46
The Palm/Entry Narrative – Luke 18:28-40 (41-46) The Passion Narrative – Luke 22:14-23:56 As we do every year we began this day by taking our place in the triumphal entry, singing our hosannas, and carrying our palms. The triumphal entry, palms, and hosannas have in many ways come to characterize this day and the beginning… Read more
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Looking Around and Leaving Nothing Behind – A Palm Sunday Sermon on Mark 11:1-11
Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’ (From the Palm Sunday gospel, Mark 11:1-11) Every time I read, hear, or say those words I… Read more
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Life-giving Turmoil – A Sermon for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, Matthew 21:1-11
Today is known as the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday. (There are two gospel readings: Matthew 21:1-11 (the triumphal entry) and Matthew 27:11-54 (the passion)). I’ve been wondering and thinking though about a different name for this day. What if we renamed today “Turmoil Sunday?” Does that sound like the gospel to you? Did… Read more