iWitnessing Palms and the Passion

Have you ever had a week where something really good happened, along with something really bad? Or laughed in a time of grief? Or cried in the middle of a celebration? That rollercoaster of emotions is what lies ahead for us as we enter Palm Sunday and Holy Week. The high that we feel on the triumphal entry of Jesus is mixed with the knowledge of what lies ahead on the road to the cross.

Read Luke 19:28-44 and Luke 23:1-24.

This Sunday would usually be a Sunday of joy, with our exciting palm parade and celebrating the King that has entered Jerusalem. We might end on a minor note as we being Holy Week, but most of the service would focus on the celebration.

This year, we’re combining the Palm Sunday traditions with the liturgy of the Passion – the last supper, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Worship will look a little different as we use a piece called “The Cry of the Whole Congregation.” The author, Walter Wangerin Jr, has this to say about our worship: “This drama has no audience. All are actors. None objective. All subjective – or else the objects of the driving love of God.” No one will be objective – the congregation will be actively participating in the reading of the Scriptures. All will be actors, as we all have a part to play in condemning Jesus.

We will sing the praises of Jesus with “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.” And in the same service we will shout “Crucify him, crucify him!” We will force Peter into denying Christ, we will mock and ridicule him, we will go with the women to prepare the body for burial. Isn’t that how our daily lives go all too often? We praise Jesus on Sunday morning in worship, and then forget to love our neighbors, forget to tend to the least of these, forget to live the way Christ teaches us. We are caught in the tension of being sinful and redeemed, of knowing the call to live a Christlike life but finding it more difficult than it sounds.

So join us as Sunday, as we are iWitnesses to the palms and the Passion, to the praise and the betrayal, the Last Supper and the last words of Christ. Come and let us remember once more.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate