Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Palm Sunday - Years A, B, C
Steadfast love endures forever. That is wonderful.
Stones are steadfast. But when steadfast and rejected it can seem as though it is the rejection that lasts forever, not the love.
Might the "gate of the Lord" have something to do with a sense of steadfast love even in the midst of rejection.
This goes beyond some a-pathetic, passionless, stiff upper lip. This goes beyond mere hanging on by one's fingernails, survival-mode, gritting of teeth.
Woe be to us if there is not a silly grin being worn somewhere in there.
So, feeling rejected recently?
So?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/april2003.html
Steadfast love [of whatever source] endures forever. (v2)
This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. (v19)
An open gateway is a better image here than simply a gate. It has the sense of always being open. Anything less than such openness moves us in the direction of earning entrance.
You may be interested in the 8 points of The Center for Progressive Christianity. Their original talks about Jesus as their Gate to the realm of GOD. You can read their points and browse their resources at tcpc.org.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/april2004.html
In keeping with the singing motif, we move from hoped for Hosanna! to Victory accomplished through steadfastness.
The gate of the Lord we desire to enter, to emulate, is that of steadfastness in all the virtues available to us. To respond to the cries of the world from Iraq and peasants disenfranchised by the World Bank to AIDS/HIV victims in Africa and foreign workers in Malaysia. To plant a foundation of hope in solidarity and establish protection of the vulnerable. To rejoice in the resources left unraped and the people, friends and enemies, available to interact with in this moment. Thus we know success.
Blessed are not those looking to their own salvation alone, but who come in the name of steadfast love. Here is Thanks. Here is Life.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html
G*D's steadfast love - - for me! - - endures.
Now comes a question of whether that steadfast love is inclusive or exclusive. Am I an example of all and so the gift to me is a gift available to all? Am I an example to all and so the gift to me shines against the darkness of their non-gift?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html
Palms: Steadfast Love - Forever!
Image living stones. Life built upon life into an edifice surrounding righteousness.
In so building, some life-stone didn't quite mesh with others. The result was chinks in the armor of the wall protecting righteousness. Righteousness leaked.
Of course, to best defend Righteousness and husband it for another day, leakage was not acceptable to the Protectors of Righteousness. When it came to a choice of leaving an unmeshed life-stone in place or replacing it with one that would better protect this most valuable of resources, the unmeshed gets pushed outward, falling to the ground.
Picking itself up our little life-stone moseys around to the gate, proclaiming, "Open to me the gates, that I may come in and give thanks."
One might imagine the gate wondering what in the world this little life-stone would have to be thankful for. For not meshing? For being a leaker of Righteousness?
Presumably, wonder got the better of the gate and open it did.
Whereupon, the little life-stone announces that only Righteousness comes in through the gate, she had come in, therefore even a little, leaky life-stone is Righteous. This syllogism (rightly or wrongly) caught their ear and became for them a new understanding of Righteousness shared.
Eventually they rebuilt with the little, unmeshable life-stone at a corner and Rightousness has shone in both directions through every nook and cranny of its walls and gates ever since.
May you leak Righteousness as did little, life-stone Jesus.
- - -
steadfast love
endures forever
even better
expands now
expansively encompassing
rejected lovers
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Palm Sunday
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16
Passion Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1 - 15:47
Palms: Here at least permission is directly given for the lending or leasing of a colt (perhaps because it only entailed one animal? [grin]). Or, a young donkey is "found".
It is instructive that the Gospels (at least part of them) are written from the perspective of the resurrection. Later folks remembered more than they knew at the time. This remembrance was just in time to be recorded as eternal truth for all time. In this circle we are freed, if we desire to live in freedom, to anticipate future insight as well as newly appreciating past experiences. It is helpful to both name the original understanding and the later revision. This grounds both in a larger reality of growth and allows a better appreciation of the witness.
A process of "midrash" is still of the utmost importance to breaking through the religious restrictions that have accumulated down through the years about expected meaning of particular passages. These midrash moments are appropriately responded to with, "Hosanna!"
Passion: Any of the numberless deadly sins could be used as a lens for this section. An easy one to use is that of greed. The set up is John's version of an anointing story and the harassing of the woman on the basis of perceived loss of revenue (greed excused as a good thing because it is "concerned" about the poor - not that they would have received any real help after an appropriate amount of administrative costs and overhead were taken out).
From there we can ask about greed of position, greed of power, and greed of control (all experiences can be commoditized).
We can also ask about generosity as we follow the story of a number of Marys. They offer their time and energy to a faithful presence. It is not as though they have any position, power, or control - they simply are witnessing. I am reminded of the women of the disappeared who publicly dance in solitude with the missing loved ones. To speak would be to be disappeared, but their act of witness is critical.
- - -
looking back brings new insight
mining experience is valuable
we polish events
bringing their deeper significance
to the surface
standing quietly by
witnessing events is valuable
we avoid secrets
pushing common realities
into the background
hands over eyes, mouth, ears
quickly diminish values
we increase ignorance
keeping insight restricted
to authorized versions
looking standing vulnerable
caring presence is valuable
we join life
partnering common good
with uncommon good
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Palm Sunday
Psalm 118:1-2,19-29
Matthew 21:1-11
Passion Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14 - 27:66
Ahh, the joy of choosing to walk a slow walk, even though many will not know how to slow down that long, and focus on Palm Sunday, or to take all of pre-Easter week in one big gulp and focus on the Passion.
Thanks to the wisdom of Robert Frost you are encouraged to take whichever path is least traveled by you and/or your community of faith.
Palms: There is still hospitality in the big city. Someone needs your donkey and colt, you lend it. That's the happy spin.
Less happy is the implication of an entitlement to have one's needs met. There is no reporting here of a question being asked when the disciples followed Jesus' command and took the animals. This is the moral equivalent of stealing. Just being Jesus doesn't get anyone off the hook of the commandment.
From there we are on to Hosanna and a recognized, but too easily passed over, understanding that Jesus is a Prophet. It would be clarifying to counterpose Palms and Prophets.
Passion: Where we usually look at the Passion of Christ and focus on his suffering, we might also look at the Passion against Christ and focus on what it is that drives people to participate with the principalities and powers.
In this vein we would investigate the commonalities between Judas, Chief Priests, (Peter, John, James and the other disciples who choose betrayal after a first betrayal), a crowd ready for violence with swords and clubs, false witnesses, Governor Pilate, a crowd still ready for violence with voice, military cohort, and guards. What passion sustained them, one to the next, until passion led to passion, in not a good way?
- - -
Thief Jesus dies alongside thieves
like calls to like
Messiah Jesus dies alongside thieves
like calls to like
do you like the call you're calling?
who are you living with?
do you like the call you're receiving?
who are you living with?
like still calls to like
like still lives with like
better like what you like
better like what you like
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Where is the gate of the LORD?
Well, it is in Jerusalem and Jesus rides through it and Herod rides through it and a cheering crowd rides through, as does a jeering crowd. Now, whether one recognizes that a gate of the LORD has been ridden through or not, well, that's a different question.
The righteous enter through it. The unrighteous enter through it. The great mundane middle enters through it.
In this Psalm we only hear of the righteous entering and this leads us to think that only the righteous enter. The word "only" makes a critical difference.
Remember that later will come a plea from the unrighteous and the uncaring for salvation that they might successfully find and enter a gate of glory beyond themselves and the moment.
Remember that later will come an affirmation regarding steadfast love, for all.
Might the gate of the LORD be located where you are? Within you, even? Will you help someone else find a gate, whether yours or not, and enter?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
Figure it this way: The righteous get to go in through the gate of righteousness. I'm righteous, so open to me the gate of righteousness that I may enter.
Then be open enough to consider you considered incorrectly. Steadfast love doesn't work on such a simplistic one-to-one correspondence. That is much too much too boring.
Note that there are gates upon gates of righteousness. One for your form of righteousness, sure enough, and other for mine and still others for others. All gates are the right gate – some are more easily recognized than others, but there are far more abundant gates than folks to go through. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
When our calculations turn out to be too small, think again, return to this passage and be reminded of steadfast love.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of “the Lord”. In the name of kindness? In the name of mercy? In the name of a questioner? In the name of settled knowledge? In the name of my understanding?
An old song posits that Jesus loves Mrs. Robinson more than she will ever know? Does the same go for any arbitrary acquaintance? Does the same go for aliens and enemies? Is blessedness more universal and unifying than we are willing to admit? Might blessedness be unlimited by any divine or secular authority because it comes with the circumstance of life?
While thankful that I have caught a next layer of meaning, can I be thankful for others whose current understanding of the value of life is so limited that they think it can be given or taken by them? Is there any hope for them or for a relationship that would include them?
Perhaps it is sufficient to simply be thankful for a constant background radiation of inherent blessedness and on-going thankfulness.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/03/psalm-1181-2-19-29.html