We Wave Our Branches and We Shout Hosanna

This is a hymn I wrote for Palm Sunday several years ago. It’s sung to the tune Sine Nomine, and is based on Psalm 47 and John 12: 12-16. 

The Annual Palm Sunday Parade

It is the annual Palm Sunday Parade, and we have come to see the sights. We’ve come early to secure the best spot, in the grass, in the shade. We’ve brought our collapsible chairs, our umbrellas, opera glasses, and a cooler of beverages. It’s a great day for a parade.  The sun is up. The wind is down. It’s not too cold – winter has only recently lost its grip on the land, and it’s not too warm, the sun has not yet reached its summer intensity. It is a great day for the annual Palm Sunday Parade.

And here they come – the rope-bearers, the knotters who lead the procession with ropes. Their brothers will follow, as we know, at the end of the parade as well, to tie the whole thing together. And yes, it’s official.We can hear the blowing of the horns of the altar.  The parade has begun!

There’s Herold, the herald, ringing a bell, followed by the Daughters of Zion throwing candy.

Now come the Freemasons, wearing caps with two-headed eagles, and splendid aprons with golden embroidery. They are throwing, not candy, but small stones. These are unwanted, rejected stones. Don’t confuse them with the bonbons thrown by the Daughters of Zion. You’ll break your teeth.

Next in line is the All Star Bethany High School Marching Band, playing a selection of songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The Bethany High School Marching Band is a crowd favorite. What they lack in precision and skill, they make up in volume.

And here is a strange entry: four creatures walking, or flying as it were, side by side. There is a golden, shimmering Man dressed all in white, and beside him a Lion as large as a truck. Next to the Lion is great Ox with six-foot long horns. Flying next to the Ox, is an Eagle. It shrieks. We are forced to cover our ears. Its cry drowns out even the marching band.

Here comes my favorite. The Laborer’s Local Union 353. They’re holding a banner that reads “MONEY CHANGERS and BANKERS BEWARE!” 

Behind them are the bagpipers.  There are always bagpipers in a parade. Always.

Now come the Lord’s Prayers. They step in time reciting the prayer that our Lord taught us.

Here are the infants and nursing babes – with their prepared praise. It’s difficult to understand what they are saying, what with their mothers’ breasts still in their mouths, and all.  But we cheer for them, nonetheless.

We’re almost at the end now. The little children come next, shouting “Hosanna!” But they’re confused. They are mixed up. Why are they wearing last year’s Christmas pageant costumes?  They’re wearing angel robes and gold tinsel halos. “Hosanna in the Highest!”  Have we got our holiday’s confused? And what is this? What is this next strange sight? A group of men holding palm branches and lemons. Lemons?  The palm branches I understand, but … Lemons?

After the citrons have passed, there is a solitary figure. He’s wearing a tattered sweater and bow tie. He’s holding a pen. I don’t know what he’s doing here.

And now, of course, the man himself riding on a colt and on the foal of a colt, a bareback trick rider extraordinaire.

Our neighbors here on the parade grounds are starting to grumble about all of this. The candy and the chaos in the streets.  But before their complaints can get too loud, they are drowned out by a strange shouting coming from those scattered, discarded stones that the Freemasons tossed.

And that seems to be it. The parade has passed by. The final Knotters have bound the whole thing up. The parade is over and the crowd turns to leave. They pack up their chairs and round up their screaming children with bags of candy.  It’s time to go.  But wait. Wait.  Like a Marvel movie post-credit sequence, here comes one more entry in the parade. Blind beggars and lurching cripples, who look like they’ve crawled up out of dank ditches, struggle on in the wake of the great parade.  They may be late, but they know they will catch up with the Parade Marshal at the end.

Who Is This? And What Does He Want? (Matthew 21: 1 – 11)

It may be difficult for us to admit or to accept, but it may not be possible for us to fully understand what is happening in this story, or what was intended by the one who recorded the oral traditions about Jesus into the form in which we have received them. Too much has been left between the lines, too much has been assumed. Relevant details that were still known and simply understood by the audience of the oral traditions were not recorded and we are left attempting to fill in the gaps. (Albright 251) The gospel writers rarely describe Jesus’ motives. The gospels give us his words and actions, but leave it to us to interpret, to figure it out; it’s up to us to supply the meaning. But we can only speculate. (Johnson 500)

Why did Jesus go to Jerusalem? Did he go intending to provoke a political conflict in the holy city? Did he go to challenge the religious leaders? Did he arrange the rental of the donkey with it owner beforehand, or was this an act of spontaneous generosity? Was Jesus making an open declaration of his messiahship after keeping it a secret for so long, or was that something only understood afterwards in 20/20 hindsight? The question asked by the people of Jerusalem that day is still with us: “Who is this?”

And when was that day? As recorded, this triumphal entry into Jerusalem took place in the spring just ahead of the celebration of pesach, that is the Passover celebration. But many of the details (the few details that are recorded for us) are connected to the autumnal festival of sukkot – the celebration of Booths or Tabernacles. The palm branches (Johnson 502), the shouting of “hosanna,” (Pope 291) and the hallel of Psalm 118 (quoted in Matthew’s story) were all part of the sukkot celebration. Did Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem actually happen in the fall rather than in the spring? And if so why did the gospel writers move it? If so, what does that change mean?

And that word, “Hosanna,” what does it mean? As used by Matthew it seems to be a word of praise in a cry of honor. “Hosanna to the Son of David! … Hosanna in the highest heavens!” But the Hebrew word is not an expression of praise, it is an imperative – a command: “Save us, now!” (Pope 291) Of the 31 times it is used in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) 29 of those are addressed to the deity – to God, and the others are addressed to the King – God’s anointed agent. (Pope 290). Are we to understand that the people on that morning in Jerusalem were crying out to God and to God’s anointed one, the Messiah, to Jesus of Nazareth, for deliverance and salvation? “Save us, O Son of David! Save us, O Highest Heaven!”

Jesus was relatively unknown in Jerusalem. He’d spent most of his time in the region of Galilee. The gospel of John records at least four trips to the Holy City, but the synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) describe only this final visit. Did the owner of the donkey and her foal somehow know “the lord”? Did they make arrangements for Jesus to use the animals?  Did the shouting crowds gathered with palm branches recognize and acclaim Jesus as their king? Did Jesus ride upon the donkey and the foal specifically and deliberately in order to fulfill the ancient prophecy – reading it like a checklist of tasks to accomplish or did his actions (intended or no) fulfill those words? Or was it only applied after the fact?

It may be difficult for us to accept or to admit, but it may not be possible for us to fully understand what is happening here. Who is this? Who is this? And what does he want?

He comes riding into Jerusalem (whether in the fall or in the spring) as the victorious king – but this is a strange king and a strange victory. He is victorious with no shot fired and no swords drawn. A king proceeded and followed by palms instead of spears and pilgrim praise instead of warrior shouts. He is a king in lowly pomp (Milman). A king who banishes chariots and horses from Ephraim and Jerusalem, a king who puts away forever the bow and arrow and proclaims peace to the nations (Zechariah 9: 9 – 10).

This is not the kind of king we’d understand, or the victory we would expect. We’d anticipate that the king would launch a round of Tomahawk missiles at his enemies, launch another wave of Hellfire attack drones. We would assume that it would not be long before he sent troops to invade and put boots on the ground. The king we understand would not ride in lowly pomp, but would travel in comfort and in style fitting his status and his office, with dignity and honor and swelling pride.

Who is this? Who is this strange victorious king that does everything backwards and wrongway round?  He is Jesus the prophet king of Nazareth. He is the one who saves us from our sin, from our despair, from our death, the one who saves us from the miserable circumstances of our lives. We wave our branches and we shout hosanna! Rescue us! Save us from our anxiety, fear, poverty, and illness. Save us! Rescue us from our debts and doubts, our ignorance, enslavement, oppression and addiction. We shout hosanna! in praise and in supplication Save us, Son of David, we praise you. Rescue us, God of highest heaven, we praise you.

Who is this? This is Jesus the prophet king – who wins by losing, lives by dying, and defeats his enemies with love and forgiveness. Who is this? This is Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet king, who brings peace to the nations and peace to our lives.

Albright W. F. & C.S. Mann, Matthew: Introduction, Translation and Notes. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc. 1971. Print.

Johnson, Sherman E. “Matthew: Exegesis” The Interpreter’s Bible Volume 7. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 1951. Print.

Milman, Henry Hart. “Ride On! Ride On in Majesty” 

Pope, Marvin H. “Hosanna.” Anchor Bible Dictionary Volume III. New York, NY: Doubleday. 1992. Print.

Biblical Limericks: World Champion Trick Rider

It would appear in reading’s first pass
that in Jerusalem’s crowded mass,
to meet the prophet’s text -
though it leaves us perplexed -
he straddled both the foal and the ass.

Matthew 21: 7

 

Inevitably

A friend of mine took it upon herself to make a nice poster from a line from my sermon this morning. I think it's very nice, but was it inevitable?

Not “Palm Sunday” but a Certain Inevitability

We call it Palm Sunday and in Christian churches around the world the faithful are celebrating Jesus’ ‘triumphal entry’ into the city of Jerusalem by waving palm branches and shouting “hosanna!” Palm branches were considered a symbol of victory and triumph. When Simon Maccabeus defeated the Jewish people’s Gentile enemies and recaptured the city of Jerusalem, “the Jews entered the city amid a chorus of praise and the waving of palm branches, with lutes, cymbals, and zithers, with hymns and songs, to celebrate Israel’s final riddance of a formidable enemy.” (1 Maccabees 13:51 Revised English Bible) In the Revelation given to John on the Island of Patmos he saw: “a vast throng, which no one could count, from all races and tribes, nations and languages, standing before the throne and the Lamb. They were robed in white and had palm branches in their hands, and they shouted aloud: ‘Victory to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7: 9 -10 Revised English Bible)

But in Luke’s telling of this story, there are no palm branches.

The word Hosanna is “a liturgical word used in Judaism and Christianity that means ‘save, we pray’” (Cameron). It was usually shouted by the Jewish people as part of the autumnal Sukkot celebration – the Feast of Tabernacles. Once a day the worshippers would walk around the altar and shout, “Save us now, we beseech thee, O Lord, send prosperity!”(Psalm 118:25) On the seventh day of the festival, this shout was repeated seven times-known as the Hoshana Rabbah-the Great Hosanna. This Hosanna ritual “combines the idea of praising realized victories over nations and sympathetic prayers for salvation” (Avery-Peck qtd. in Cameron).[i]

It also makes a nice connection to Jesus himself as his name in Hebrew is Yeshua meaning “Yahweh is Salvation,” because “he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21 New Jerusalem Bible) Hosanna! Save us! Jesus! Our salvation!

But, again, In Luke’s telling of this story, there are no shouts of “Hosanna!” [ii] Suddenly our “Palm Sunday” begins to feel a little empty-no waving palms, no “Hosannas!”

Compared to the other gospel accounts of Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem, Luke’s version seems relatively restrained, almost (but not quite) subdued. Luke may have quieted the noise and hubbub of Jesus’ entrance somewhat, but he has not entirely softened or quieted the story, not by any means.

In fact, we find the pilgrim crowds following Jesus that morning joyfully praising God at the top of their voices, praising him for all the miracles and works of power that they’d seen and experienced in Jesus of Nazareth. They are shouting in full voice:

“Blessed is who is coming as King in the name of the Lord,
peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!”

Luke may have eliminated the waving palms and the shouts of Hosanna but there’s still a lot of excitement here. But not everyone in the crowd was quite so thrilled. There were some Pharisees in the crowd who seemed to be a little irritated by Jesus and his crowd of followers. They urged Jesus to restrain, reprove, and rebuke them.

Luke doesn’t describe their motivation for us.  It could be that they were fearful of a Roman backlash. The crowds were hailing Jesus as a King, something that the Roman occupiers could have interpreted as the beginnings of political uprising. Perhaps the Pharisees feared a violent Roman response to the excited crowd.

It could also be that the Pharisees were concerned for Jesus’ health and safety. I know that we’re somewhat conditioned to thinking of the Pharisees as the bad guys; that’s the way their usually depicted in the gospels, as the enemies and opponents of Jesus. But earlier in Luke’s gospel (13:31) we read of the Pharisees warning Jesus of Herod’s threats against his life. It could be that the Pharisees were warning Jesu for his own safety.

And, of course, it could be that the Pharisees here are expressing their own personal disagreement, disgust, and disbelief. As I said, Luke doesn’t describe their motives for us. So take your pick. It could be any of these or maybe something else altogether.  Whatever their motivations might have been, Jesus ignores their demand that he silence his followers. He tells them that if his followers are silenced, then the very stones would begin to sing and shout the praises of God.

There is a certain inevitability here. “Attention must be paid,” (Miller Act 1, Part 8). Praises must be sung. “Somethings simply must be said; the disciples are expressing what is ultimately and finally true. God will provide a witness though every mouth be stopped; opposition to Christian witness cannot succeed, and the truth will come out. It cannot be silenced” (Craddock).

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. said that “the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice,” (King) and, I would add, towards praise. The two are linked. With justice will come praise for the just and holy God. Blessed the one who comes in the name of the King, bringing peace in heaven and on earth for those who he favors. (Luke 2:14)

In Luke’s retelling of the “triumphal entry” there may be neither waving palms nor shouts of Hosanna- save us now- but we have an intimation of the inevitable and glorious end: Praise and peace and justice in the Kingdom of God.

Palm Sunday (with or without the palms) is a ray of bright sun before the dark, tenebrous gloom of Good Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday. There is an awkwardness to our praise today because we know we still must go through the passion-that is, pain- the suffering, and blood, and death.

Ride on, ride on in majesty
in lowly pomp ride on to die. (Milman)

But this is not the end. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends, not toward suffering and death but towards justice and praise. And the universe is bent towards these wonderful ends because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

O Christ the triumphs now begin
o’er captive death and conquered sin. (Milman)

So today, instead of the traditional palm waving and “Hosanna” shouting, we will shout with the crowds:

“Blessed is he who is coming
as King in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest heaven
Glory to God in the highest heaven
and on earth, peace for those he favors.”

We move inevitably towards justice and peace and praise because of Jesus’ triumph over sin and death.

Cameron, Daniel J. “Hosanna” The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015. Print.

Craddock, Fred. Interpretation: Luke. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990. Print.

Crossan, John Dominick. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1995. Print.

Gilmore, S. MacLean. “Luke: Introduction” The Interpreter’s Bible.  Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 1952. Print

King jr., Martin Luther. "Keep Moving from this Mountain” – sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood. 1965. 

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. 1949.

Milman, Henry H. “Ride On, Ride On, in Majesty” The Salvation Army Songbook, The Salvation Army, London.

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[i] Because of the odd combination of details from the autumnal Sukkot celebration with Jesus’ springtime entrance into the city of Jerusalem just before Passover, some scholars have suggested that his triumphal entry occurred during Sukkot and that that story has been combined with the events of Holy Week. 

John Dominic Crossan doesn’t believe the triumphal entry (or, as he calls it, the “antitriumphal” entry) “ever actually happend, except as later symbolic retrojection. (Crossan 128-9)

[ii] In fact, Luke has eliminated almost all Semitic “barbarisms” from his gentile oriented gospel. (Gilmour 3-4) 

Biblical Limericks: No Palm Sunday

Though we celebrate with shouts and psalms
still I have a few lingering qualms,
for what does Saint Luke say
of that first Palm Sunday?
He says naught of the waving of palms.

Luke 19: 28 - 40

For Us

The crowd,
holding branches,
shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed
is the one who comes from the Lord
for us.”

This is my first attempt at writing a Cinquain.

Muted Hosannas

The gates of the city have lifted their heads
to receive and to welcome the king on his way.
On a donkey he rides and for glory he dies,
hung on a tree, rejected, despised.
We watch without seeing
and we see but we don’t understand
how the victorious king should die like man.
So beat the drum slowly and play the pipes low;
sing muted hosannas for the king on the way.

Ride On ! Ride On in Majesty!

We're singing this hymn this morning - Ride On! Ride on in Majesty! - and I was struck by the words of the third verse:

Ride on! Ride on in majesty
the angel armies of the sky
look down with sad and wondering eyes
to see the approaching sacrifice.

Palm Sunday is a day that Christians celebrate... but perhaps it would do us good to quiet the Hosannas just a bit to see the approaching sacrifice.

The recording below plays through the melody (hymn tune = Winchester New) 4 times, and ends with an Amen.  It's yours if you want it.  Download it here.

Biblical Limericks: He Rode Both?

Matthew may have gone out of his way
to match his words with what prophets say
the prophet said a colt
and donkey, so, the dolt,
he had Jesus ride both beasts that day.

Matthew 21: 4 - 7

A Blessing for Palm Sunday

May the Lord God, who is King over all, bless you today.
May you hear the word of his good pleasure.

May you know his will and his intent,
which is your life everlasting and your incorruptible perfection.
May you be enriched in him.
Be strong, and be redeemed by his grace.

May the King who has come,

riding on a donkey,
give you an everlasting crown,
a crown of truth for your head.

May his victory be yours.
May he bless you with peace.

Amen.

Based on Psalm 47, John 12: 12 – 16, and Odes of Solomon 9

We Wave Our Branches and We Shout Hosanna - A New Hymn

Here is another of my attempts at hymnody - We Wave Our Branches and We Shout Hosanna! - in which I have arranged Psalm 47 and John 12: 12 - 16 to be sung to the popular hymn tune Sine Nomine (which means "without a name.")  That melody was composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958) and is familiar to many as the hymn For All the Saints.

1 O clap your hands, all peoples of the earth,
shout to the Lord with your loud songs of joy
for he is king and all the world is his;
we wave our branches and we shout hosanna!

2 We gather here as people of the Lord
to sing to God, sing praises with a psalm
and he will save the people that he loves;
we wave our branches and we shout hosanna!

3 God has ascended amid shouts of joy.
We praise his name with trumpets and our songs.
We will not fear, behold our king is come;
we wave our branches and we shout hosanna!

   

Biblical Haiku: John 12: 13

Green leafy branches
waving in an ebullient sky
hosanna

A Pilgrim's Song for Palm Sunday

We begin in the dust of the road, weary and tired. Our feet are sore. Our throats are dry.  But in the distance we can see it, that city on a hill, the ancient-eternal city of Jerusalem, the pilgrim’s destination.

The torah instructs us that we are pilgrim people.  Even though we may be settled in our homes, the Blessed One has taught us to remember that“…a wandering Aramaean was my ancestor.”[i]  And so we make the three annual pilgrimages for the great Jewish festivals[ii].  We go up for Shavuot to celebrate the revelation of the torah to Moses.  We go up for Sukkoth[iii] – the Feast of Tabernacles, and as we do today, we go up for Pesach – the Passover - [iv] so that we can remember the time of our departure from Egypt, to recall the dramatic and miraculous events which led to our exodus from that ancient land of slavery.

We followed the Blessed One then, as he led us from Egypt, through the Sea of Reeds though we were pursued by the Egyptians and their chariots.  We followed him as he led us to meet with him at Mount Sinai where he gave us the torah.  We followed, though somewhat reluctantly and grumbling, to the Promised Land.  And now we continue to follow him, wandering after the Holy One of Israel.  Our feet are blistered. Our legs are weary.  But we follow because he is our God.  We are hungry.  We are thirsty.  But we will be filled. 

And even though we are road-weary we sing pilgrim songs, songs of the road.

I was glad when they said to me,
‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’…
Jerusalem, built as a city
which is bound firmly together,
to which the tribes go up…
as was decreed by the LORD,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.[v]

We sing in anticipation of the Passover hallel:

Hallelujah! Praise, O servants of the LORD,
Praise the name of the LORD!
Blessed be the name of the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting
the name of the LORD is to be praised![vi]

Our pilgrim band may be tired, but we walk on.  The children, with youth's wellspring of energy run on ahead, laughing and dancing, darting after butterflies. Some of us are slower; age has weakened our joints.  We breathe hard, panting for breath between the lines of the psalm, as we walk up these steep hills.  But there is always a hand ready to help us, to steady us.  We walk together.  You look tired.  Have some of my water and give me your bag. I will carry it for you. We’re almost there.  And there we will celebrate.

 Along the way our band of pilgrims has encountered other travelers.  They have joined us.  Or we have joined them.  All of us, together, making our way towards Jerusalem.  We have shared with them our stories, and they have shared their laughter with us.  We have shared our food and our songs and our prayers. 

And here now, as we pass the town of Bethphage[vii] we see fig trees, hundreds of them along the side of the road.  Several of the older children run towards them, but before we can warn them against eating any, they realize for themselves that the figs are not yet ripe.  The leaves are there, but it is not yet the season for figs.[viii]

And now we are nearing the town of Bethany[ix].  There are more fig trees here. The children run to check again, but they are disappointed again.  Their frowns are fleeting, however. They are quickly distracted by shouts and cheers from the road up ahead.

A large group of travelers has joined us on the road here and they are as excited as we are, perhaps more.  At their head is a man they are addressing as “Rabbi” and “master.”  He is smiling and laughing, too.  Though, if you’ll watch, his smile falters a little every now and then. There.  Did you see it?  That frown as he looked off towards Jerusalem?

But how can anyone frown at such a time as this?  There is a sudden cheer from the group as two of their members return from the nearby village.  They are leading a young colt – an unbroken colt, it would seem from the way it struggles and bucks against their leading. The colt rears his head back suddenly, and the young man holding the leading rope is jerked backwards.  He falls on his bottom in a plume of dust.  The colt neighs loudly and the crowd is laughing uproariously.

The rabbi, Yeshua, I believe they are calling him, laughs too.  His frown is gone, replaced by a wide grin.  He reaches down to lift up his fallen disciple. 

“It was just as you said, rabbi,” says the disciple holding the colt’s reins. “We found the colt tied up at a door way, out in the open street.  We untied him to bring him to you and some people there stopped us.  “What are you doing, untying that colt?”  We told them just what you said, “the Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.”  Your word was good enough for them.  They let us bring it to you.”

Yeshua nods and thanks his disciple.  Immediately some of the men in their group begin to strip off their outer coats.  They lay them across the back of the colt and waving their arms towards the beast, invite this Yeshua to sit upon it.   He laughs again and embraces them and then sits on the colt.

He looks like a king.  But kings ride horses and this is only a colt.  And then someone remembers the words of the prophet Zechariah:

 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.[x]

His disciples are cheering and the crowd is shouting.  They are wild with enthusiasm, and it is hard not to get caught up in their excitement.  Soon we are all shouting with them.

“Hoshanna”! Someone shouts, and for a moment I think that they have called out his name, “Yeshua” the words are very much the same.  “Hoshanna! They shout again and again.  “Save us! Save us now! Deliver us! Deliver us now!” 

And it isn’t long before our shouts have become a song.  We are singing another of the hallels- the psalms of praise. 

Save us, we beseech thee, O LORD!
O LORD, we beseech thee, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless you from the house of the LORD!
The LORD is God,
and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
up to the horns of the altar.[xi]

Several of the disciples dart away from the road and begin gathering branches and brushwood cut from the nearby fields.  They race back to the road with armloads of these branches and they begin spreading them out along the road in front of the colt.  Others are waving them in the air and shouting and singing.

Blessed is the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!
In the heights, cry out “Hoshanna!”[xii]

And still other voices are with us singing:

Our glad hosannas, Prince of Peace,
thy welcome shall proclaim,
and heaven’s eternal arches ring
with thy beloved name.

He comes, the prisoner to release
in Satan’s bondage held;
the gates of brass before him burst,
the iron fetters yield.

He comes, the broken heart to bind,
the wounded soul to cure,
and with the treasures of his grace
to enrich the humble poor.

Hark the glad sound! the Savior comes,
the Savior promised long;
let every heart prepare a throne,
and every voice song.[xiii]

He is the promised one, the coming one, the one who will save us.  We cheer him on. Ride on! Ride on! Hosanna! Ride on!

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
Hark, all the tribes hosanna cry;
thine humble beast pursues his road
with palms and scattered garments strowed

And, because we are singing from this side of history, we can sing more than those weary but eager pilgrims so long ago.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
O Christ, thy triumphs now begin
O’re captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
Bow thy meek head to mortal pain
then take, O God, thy power, and reign.[xiv]

Let us–who are pilgrims wandering after God today, say to him as he enters the city: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.  Let us wave before him like palm branches those final words inscribed above him on the cross.  Let us show him honor, not with olive branches but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that entering us with the whole of his being, he may draw the whole of our being into himself and place the whole of his in us. Let us say to Zion in the words of the prophet: Have courage, daughter of Zion, do not be afraid. Behold, your king comes to you, humble and mounted on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.[xv]


Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, may your reign become real through the works of our hands and your love become alive in our hearts.

Hosanna and Amen.

I am grateful to Charles Foster's book The Sacred Journey for some of these thoughts. 

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[i] Deuteronomy 26: 1 - 5

[ii] Exodus 34:23

[iii] Leviticus 23:42-43

[iv] Deuteronomy 16: 1- 8

[v] Psalm 122: 1 - 4

[vi] Psalm 113: 1 - 3

[vii] Aramaic “House of Un-ripe Figs”

[viii] Mark 11: 1, 13

[ix] Aramaic “House of the Figs” or “House of affliction/poverty”

[x] Zechariah 9:9

[xi] Psalm 118: 25 - 27

[xii] Mark 11: 9 – 10 Anchor Bible Translation

[xiii] Phillip Doddrige (1702 – 1751) – can be sung to “Joy to the World”

[xiv] Henry Hart Milman (1791 – 1868)

[xv] St. Andrew of Crete

Powerpoint Slides for Everyone - week 14 - Palm Sunday

I've been posting a background image for use in Powerpoint (or similar presentation program) every week.  This week's image is, unlike the previous 13, rather specific to this week.  Since it will be Palm Sunday, the image was created specifically for that.  You are still free to use this image (or any of the previous ones) in your school, business or church projects.  I only ask that you share them freely and that you tell others that you found them here.