Matthew 26:14 - 27:66

Passion Sunday - Year A

 


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

 


 

Palm Sunday Matthew 21:1-11 or
Passion Sunday Matthew 26:14 - 27:66 (or 27:11-54)

Where will you focus:
Jesus riding a donkey?
Disciples acting like donkeys?
Judas braying, “Greetings, Rabbi.”?
Peter stubborn in denial?
Chief priests calling for Jesus, reprising Jesus calling for a donkey?
Jesus stubborn in silence?
Crowd stubborn for Barabbas?
Crowd stubborn for crucifixion?
Pilate stubborn in innocence?
Chief priests stubborn in mocking their scapegoat?

Perhaps we might look at release in both Palm and Passion narratives.

What do you imagine a donkey’s release to be riden might signify?
Hosannas let loose.

What do you imagine forsakeness released might reveal?
Positively:
Religious symbols remade.
Faults shifted.
Past unbound.
Perspective changed.
Witnesses blessed.
Negatively:
Rich collude with religious to put away those endangering them?
Witnesses powerless.
Plots deepened.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/04/matthew-211-11-or-2614-2766.html

 


 

what is mine is yours
and vice versa
when need arises
privilege exits

the ass of me
becomes sign and symbol
of Hosanna living
donkeys appreciated

against this background
we wave our palms
and shout our hope
passionately

what is mine is mine
there will be no desertion
of individual responsibility
privilege exists

my crowing cock
reveals great bravado
for what it is
flustered and flopping

this visible detail
pains and bows
as we moan our fear
our passion

teaching and learning
backgrounds and foregrounds
confuse and reveal
passion and passionate

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/04/passionate-palms.html