March 28, 2010
(The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday)

The Liturgy of the Palms

The Liturgy of the Word

(From The Lectionary Page)

Paradoxes, Metaphors and Mysteries

Photo of The Very Rev. Dean Terry White by The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

This Sunday of the Passion, as with all of Holy Week, is a time to steer clear of oversimplification and overstatement. The liturgy each day invites us, pleads with us, to make ourselves vulnerable to the mystery unfolding before us.

If we can withstand the repeated paradoxes encountered in these next days, we will find ourselves drawn to the Crucified One. And we will find ourselves drawn more and more into the faith community which also endures suffering while obeying God.

Is there a greater paradox than the Passion of Jesus?  The Savior of the world hung on a tree. The way of the cross is the way of life? And we are to take up our cross? We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

Throughout the centuries atonement theories have been created seeking to do the impossible: describing how Christ’s death saves us. Such overstatement I do not find helpful this week, nor do I find helpful sound bite reflections being passed off as atonement theology. The Passion cannot be oversimplified.

As the liturgy prays: He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.

To the Philippians Paul writes: Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.  That sounds rather reasonable at first, writes Canon Herbert O’Driscoll, who continues, Do we realize the terrifying standard that is set before us?

Paul writes that Jesus emptied himself, took the form of a slave, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death.

What is terrifying here are not the acts of submission and obedience themselves; rather, it is the undeniable proclamation that in God’s domain, power emerges from humility. Christ, our King, reigns from the cross. As his people, there, too, is the source of our life.  In baptism we are buried with Christ in his death, and as his Body, the Church, we are called to radical servanthood that imitates the One who stretches out his arms upon the cross.

The paradox is stunning in its clarity.  Exaltation and victory, the glory and resurrection that awaits is only possible through such utter obedience to God.  Will we live that way?  Gazing at the One crowned with thorns, how will we answer?

We processed down this aisle led by an empty cross of triumph, waving palms and singing “all glory, laud, and honor.”  We will leave here led by the corpus of Christ on a wooden cross, lamenting how humanity dealt with his complete obedience to God, how humanity still reacts to sacrificial, unconditional love.  From his concentration camp barracks, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: When God calls you, he calls you to die. That is the cost of discipleship, the fullness of what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus.  Metaphors can emerge from the cross, but the Cross itself is not a metaphor.

Such is the mystery of this week, such is the Mystery of Faith.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

Offered each of us this Week is a precious gift.  All that weighs on us, all the chains we carry around, all that causes us pain and sorrow and robs us of life and joy – all of it, can be placed at the foot of the cross. Is not our soul sin-sick? Are we not tired, weary of glittering images, messed up priorities, and suffocating pride?  The Precious Blood will cleanse us, heal us, renew us.

Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.  In God’s kingdom, power is found in humility, obedience to the divine will, emptying oneself, being a servant, walking the way of the cross.  It is terrifying. It is liberating. It is the meaning of baptism, and it leads to everlasting life.