THE JOURNEY INTO FREEDOM
(also known as “Crocus-Minded”)
Mark 11:1-10
Rev. Gary Paterson
February 17, 2008
Palm Sunday Well, I thought the numbers at worship today might be down – I mean, the Celtic Parade is just about to start moving down Howe Street; streets are blocked, traffic jammed; thousands of people line the streets; lots of green… costumes, floats, faces; fiddles and bagpipes; the police are out in force, helping everything flow smoothly. Politicians are, um, expected to make an appearance. I like parades, and this is a fun one. And hey, at the right pubs, they’re offering green beer.
Instead, you all showed up here, at a church, to celebrate a different parade… Palm Sunday. Not quite as flashy; waving our somewhat limp, almost wilted palm spears… no, not even a full out palm branch, just a pale yellow-green spear; trying to figure out how to walk and sing at the same time, being careful not to run over our neighbour as we go marching up the centre aisle. And after… well, no green beer, but you get to dip a little piece of bread into some red-purple grape juice. Though you’re in luck today, because after worship, you can come to the Guatemala Brunch… but be ready to hear some challenging words, with an invitation to “buy a chicken”.
Two very different parades… Celtic... Palm Sunday Church…and yet, why am I surprised – it has been ever thus. Two parades…. two thousand years ago. You see, the real action on a long-ago Palm Sunday, was the marching to Jerusalem of the Roman soldiers. The governor of Palestine, Pontius Pilate, preferred the coastal airs and comforts of Caesarea on the Mediterranean; he avoided Jerusalem as much as he could. But not on Passover, when Jewish pilgrims traveled to the Holy City to remember their liberation from a previous imperial power, Egypt; it was a time of dangerous dreaming… liberty, freedom, hope. Jews became restless at Passover; they thought too much about God. And so every year, a few days before the festivities began, the army left the coast and marched to Jerusalem and paraded through the central city gates… row after row, brandishing their swords and spears; officers on white stallions; sun glinting upon fierce armour; trumpets blowing at full blast. This was a parade of power… and, of course, of money. Through the streets of Jerusalem the troops strutted their stuff, up to Fortress Antonia, looking down over the Temple. A surge of troops to control violence is not a modern invention!
But at a another gate into Jerusalem, there was a different parade; almost a parody of the show on the other side of town. Rabbi Jesus, coming down from Galilee and the hick town of Nazareth, he entered the city riding on a donkey, surrounded by a motley crew of disciples, and … in truth, only a handful of pilgrims; palm branches, a bit of shouting… Hosannah, Hosannah… that kind of thing. Nobody paid that much attention – though the religious authorities sensed the potential for trouble. Because, of course, riding a donkey into Jerusalem was a “lift” from the prophet Zechariah – an acted out fulfillment, meaning, “This is the moment; I am the Messiah… everything’s about to change!” So the real question was, “What was this Jesus doing?”
But if you’d been a betting person, you’d have put your money on the Romans; in fact, you’d have been smart to keep your distance – this whole riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, it had the smell of politics… of trouble. There was too much defiance; too much challenge – and it was inevitable that Pontius Pilate would take action… he was nobody’s fool; in fact, history tells a story of a brutal, ruthless man.
But let’s not kid ourselves…. Jesus knew what he was doing. He knew that there were prophetic echoes in his actions; in fact, his whole ministry was disturbing, even threatening… at least, to the status quo. But Jesus believed in a vision of God’s love and compassion, of justice and peace… he believed this was possible, here, on earth. And he was willing to stick his neck out for it; because he had something personal and emphatic to say about it.
He knew what would happen… anyone with two thoughts to rub together could predict the most likely outcome. You don’t challenge the power guys with money and military muscle, and expect to escape unscathed. Now, possibly, the disciples were hoping that this was the long-awaited moment when God would finally intervene big time, and set everything straight – Rome would end up on the bottom, and Israel, on top. Apocalyptic theology it was called… a belief that God will supernaturally intervene, reach down from somewhere and fix everything… this is Rapture theology, End Times, Left Behind literature; miraculous, final…. A holy surge of angelic troops, ready to bring victory.
Would that it were so; and maybe someday… but a whole lot of what Jesus was about was something you might call participatory theology. Meaning that God was acting, you bet; God would never stop acting – that’s the promise, and the hope. BUT… and here, perhaps, is the key difference… God needs partners; God needs creation to respond; God needs us. And so Jesus keeps inviting people, inviting people like us, into a journey of freedom, with a vision of love and justice and peace marking our path way; a way of living that is marked by joy and compassion… and a fierce determination to stick our necks out because we believe in the vision, and have something personal and emphatic to say about it.
The trick is, you can’t get there by fighting, by using violence; you can only get there through love. Through the other parade… the Palm Sunday kind of parade, on the wrong side of the tracks. Donkeys… not stallions, or brass bands, or tanks. To be working with God, for God, in God… it means softening your heart, being vulnerable, open to the Spirit. As Jesus said, “Love your neighbours” and also, “Love your enemies.” You wonder if there’s an escape clause, and Jesus just smiles, saying, “Bless those who curse you.”
But being part of the other parade, the Palm Sunday parade… it doesn’t mean wimp out accommodation. No, you just remember Jesus on the donkey, thumbing his nose at the Roman authorities, and you’ll catch a glimpse of the fierce determination required to challenge the status quo, to bring about change, and to do so in God’s name, filled with a vision of the Peacable Kingdom…. but to do so with love, in love.
It takes courage to be part of the Palm Sunday parade, to follow along with this Jesus. In fact, you need to be crocus-minded. Listen to this prose poem by Jo Sorley:
It takes courageto be crocus-minded.God, I’d rather wait until June,like wise roses,when the hazards of winter are safely behind,and when I’m expected,and everything’s ready for roses.But crocuses?Highly irregular.knifing through hard-frozen ground and snow,and sticking their necks out,because they believe in springand have something personaland emphatic to say about it.God, I am by nature rose-minded.Even when I have studied the situation hereand know there are wrongs that need righting,Affirmations that need stating,and know also that my speaking out may offend…for it rocks the boat….Well, I’d rather wait until June.Maybe later things will work themselves out,and we won’t have to make an issue of it.God forgive.Wrongs don’t work themselves out.Injustices and inequities and hurts don’t just dissolve.Somebody has to stick her neck out,somebody who cares enoughto think throughand work through hard ground,because she believesand has something personaland emphatic to say about it.Me God?Crocus-minded?Could it be that there are things the need to be said,[… and done…]And you want me to say [and do] them?I pray for courage.
Crocus-minded! … Yesterday, I was at the airport waving off my youngest daughter, Zoe… many of you know her, and of my visit after Christmas, to the Cook Islands where she has been working for the last three years in an HIV/AIDS outreach organization. Well, now she’s off to Bangkok, in Thailand, to work for an NGO called Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women. Which leaves me excited, proud, and scared. Thailand, sex trade, violence against women; domestics and nannies and refugees … was it too much to ask that she might be a crocus in Vancouver… where it’s a lot safer!!
Crocus-minded… at the same time as Zoe was flying away, there was a group of St. Andrew’s-Wesley folk and friends, standing at the corner of Nelson and Burrard, wearing somewhat silly but wonderful turquoise scarves, holding up a banner of the same colour that shouted out, “Stand Up for Housing”. My God… it was a demonstration; a protest, a witness… a parade. A bunch of crocuses, who were sticking their necks out because they believed in God’s vision of love and justice… which means housing for everyone, especially those who are most hurting… mentally ill, addicted, abused. Stand up for housing… for all my neighbours. There they were, because they had something personal and emphatic to say about it. Three weeks ago, there were people standing at our church corner, and maybe three other places in the city, part of a coordinated parade; yesterday… I think there were something like fifteen or twenty intersections where people were standing up for housing… a lot of those turquoise scarves; a lot of crocuses. It can happen!
Let’s pause for a moment though… this is not just another “roll up your sleeves and start changing the world” kind of sermon.; this is a Jesus sermon. We need to remember that this Palm Sunday parade is not just presenting a good strategy for political change. I mean it is that, and it’s been well used by folk like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.. But we who believe that Jesus embodies God’s Spirit trust that what is being demonstrated in his life, in his parade, is a revelation of the ways of God. Which is to say, Jesus reveals that God is working in the universe, but not by coercive force, not by violence, not by a blast of fiery supernatural intervention. No, God is instead working though love -- inviting our response, hoping for relationship, partnership. Participatory theology; but always, God working in and through us; God.
Gandhi once said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you; then they fight you; and then you win.” He understood what Jesus was saying, I think. He knew all about that little parade on the other side of town, the Palm Sunday parade, ... ignored, laughed at; but then,… a showdown. A fight. And here’s the crazy part -- victory – “then you win”. Despite the legions, and swords; despite the money and the power. Because God is on the side of the donkeys and crocuses; and God never stops dreaming, and inviting partners to join the parade….
Travelling the road to freedomwho wants to travel that road with me?Feted by noise and branches,and banners hanging from every tree;cheered on by frenzied people,puzzled by what they hear and see,travelling the road to freedom,who wants to travel that road with me.Travelling the road to freedom,partnered by staunch supporterswho, come the dark, will turn and flee;nourished by faith and patience,neither of which is plain to see;travelling the rod to freedom,who wants to travel that road with me.Travelling the road to freedom,who wants to travel that road with me?Tipping the scales of justice,setting both minds and captives free;suffering, yet forgiving,even when my friends most disagree,travelling the road to freedom,who wants to travel that road with me?Travelling the road to freedom,I am the Way, I’ll take you there.Choose to come on the journey,or choose to criticize or stare.Earth’s mesmerizing evil,only a traveler can repair.Travelling the road to freedom,who wants to travel that road with me?